Press Releases 2003

December 22, 2003
Christian Roth turns 70

Christian Roth, Chairman of the Executive Board of Bilfinger Berger AG from 1984 until 1998, celebrates his 70th birthday on December 29, 2003. He was with the company for more than 40 years and was a member of the Executive Board for 26 years.

During that time, Christian Roth was one of the driving forces behind the company's development into an internationally leading construction group. He played a major part in the successful merger of Grün & Bilfinger AG and Julius Berger-Bauboag AG to form Bilfinger Berger AG in 1975. In addition to traditional international activities in Africa and the United States, important new markets were penetrated in Southeast Asia and Australia. In addition, the company's assets were broadened and thus the basis for the Group's future-oriented positive development was created. He placed particular importance on good personal relations with his staff and on promoting constructive cooperation within the company. After leaving the operative business, Christian Roth entered the Supervisory Board of Bilfinger Berger AG, of which he was a member until June 2003.

From 1993 until 1996, as President of the Confederation of the German Construction Industry, Christian Roth was largely responsible for the development of this important industrial sector. In his period of office, the situation of the German construction industry was affected by the consequences of reunification, the opening up of Central and Eastern Europe, and the globalization of markets. Christian Roth played a crucial part in creating a regulation to protect the domestic construction market against competitive distortion from European wage dumping. His early support for private-sector financing and operator models was of particular economic significance. Furthermore, he actively promoted a more practice-oriented university education.

The Faculty of Civil Engineering and Surveying of the Munich Technical University awarded Christian Roth an honorary doctorate in 1991. In 1993, his efforts for the integration of the East and West German construction industry and for the improvement of the German construction industry's competitiveness were rewarded with the Order of Merit First Class of the Federal Republic of Germany.