| Matthias KURTH
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Doc. 4 for the biography
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Candidate to the Post of
Secretary-General
Matthias KURTH, Germany |
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GENERAL INFORMATION |
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| Name |
Matthias KURTH |
| Nationality |
German |
| Date of birth |
19 February 1952 |
| Place of birth |
Heidelberg, Germany |
| Address |
The President of the Federal
Network Agency
for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway
Postfach 8001
53105 Bonn
Germany |
| Further information |
www.matthiaskurth.info |
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| Matthias Kurth, born 1952 in
Heidelberg, has been President of the Federal Network Agency
of the Federal Republic of Germany for the past five years.
In this capacity, he heads an organisation comprising 2,500
members of staff, and responsible for managing, for the
benefit of 82 million citizens, the competition frameworks
in the telecommunications and postal markets and recently in
the energy and rail markets too. During that time, the
dynamics of growth in broadband access and the number of
mobile subscribers has continued unbroken, and competition
is lively.
A legal expert, Matthias Kurth is Chairman of the Radio
Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG) of the European Union, which
advises the European Commission in issues of frequencies.
Matthias Kurth is also a Senior Research Fellow of
Columbia University, New York N.Y. (Columbia Institute for
Tele-Information) since 2002, and participates actively in
the Institute's projects on a regular basis.
He is Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the ICT
think-tank “Wissenschaftliches Institut für Infrastruktur
und Kommunikationsdienste” (WIK), and closely follows the
Institute's research and development activities which
involve promoting the development of telecommunications
services worldwide and the recent completion of projects in
Peru, Albania, Bangladesh, El Salvador, Morocco, Benin and
Azerbaijan, for instance.
Matthias Kurth was State Secretary in Hesse from 1994 to
1999, during which time he fostered development of the
telecommunications market and took forward discussions on
opening the market by means of new legislation.
As a former telecommunications executive, Mr Kurth is
familiar with the concerns of the private sector.
Mr Kurth has gained extensive political experience in
parliament and government. As a State Secretary he
demonstrated his competence at the head of a large public
administration.
In all these capacities he has participated at
international level in many intergovernmental bodies, and
represented Germany as head of delegation and speaker at
numerous international events.
Over a period of years Mr Kurth has been active at the
international and European level in a number of bodies, e.g.
as Chairman of the European Independent Regulators Group,
and has also represented Germany at many ITU Conferences. As
a result of this experience he is, in particular, familiar
with the needs of the developing countries in the
telecommunications sector, and has actively promoted an
exchange of experience in a number of cooperation projects.
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EDUCATION |
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1971 - 1976 |
Law and economics
programme at Frankfurt am Main University; first state
examination |
| 1976 - 1978 |
Postgraduate legal
trainee in the justice administration of the German state of
Hesse; second state examination |
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CAREER |
| 1978 |
Judge at regional court of
Darmstadt |
| 1980 - 1994 |
Attorney in town of Dreieich;
admission to regional court of Darmstadt |
| 1978 - 1994 |
Member of the state legislature of Hesse (SPD
parliamentary group); served on executive, budget, and
internal affairs committees
(for a time also deputy chairman of the internal affairs
committee and SPD group spokesman) |
| 1991 - 1994 |
Parliamentary Secretary and deputy chairman
of the SPD group in the state legislature |
| 1994 - 1995 |
State Secretary in Hesse's Ministry of
Economics, Transport, Technology, and European Affairs; Head
of Administration and Permanent Deputy Minister; responsible
for representation of Hesse at the EU in Brussels |
| 1995 - 1999 |
State Secretary in Hesse's Ministry of
Economics, Transport, and Urban and Regional Development;
Head of Administration and Permanent Deputy Minister |
|
1994 - 1997 |
Representative of the state of Hesse in the
Regulatory Council for Posts and Telecommunications;
participated in framing the Telecommunications Act |
|
1994 - 1998 |
Representative of the state of Hesse in the
Committee of the Regions of the European Union, with focus
on trans-European networks, information and communications
technology, and air transport |
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1994 - 1997 |
Member of the supervisory board of the
Deutsche Ausgleichsbank in Bonn - Bad Godesberg |
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1997 - 1998 |
Chairman of the Conference of heads of
administration of the ministers of economics at federal and
state level. |
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1999 - 2000 |
Director for business development, law, and
regulation in the management of COLT Telekom GmbH in
Frankfurt am Main |
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2000 - 2001 |
Vice-president of the Regulatory Authority
for Telecommunications and Posts |
|
2001 |
President of the Regulatory Authority for
Telecommunications and Posts |
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since June 2005 |
President of the Federal Network Agency for
Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway |
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Other research and volunteer
work |
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International Telecommunication Union, Geneva |
| April 2000 |
Head of delegation to ITU Telecom Americas
in Rio de Janeiro |
| September 2000 |
Member of delegation to ITU World
Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA) in
Montreal |
| December 2000 |
Head of delegation and spokesman at the
forum ITU Telecom Asia in Hong Kong |
| November 2001 |
Spokesman at the forum ITU Telecom Africa
in Johannesburg |
| December 2002 |
Spokesman at the forum ITU Telecom Asia in
Hong Kong |
| October 2003 |
Spokesman at the forum ITU Telecom World in
Geneva |
| October 2004 |
World Telecommunication Standardization
Assembly (WTSA) in Florianopolis |
| July 2005 |
ITU Council in Geneva |
| October 2005 |
Head of delegation and spokesman at the
forum ITU Telecom Americas in Salvador da Bahia |
| November 2005 |
Councillor, Global Symposium for Regulators
in Hammamet |
| November 2005 |
World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
in Tunis |
| March 2006 |
Head of delegation, World Telecommunication
Development . Conference in Doha |
| April 2006 |
ITU Council in Geneva |
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Member of European bodies |
| Since 2000 |
Independent Regulators Group (IRG)
(Association of European Telecommunication Regulators) |
| 2001 |
Chairman of the IRG |
| Since 2002 |
European Regulators Group (ERG) (Group of
European Regulatory Agencies for Electronic Communication
Networks and Services) |
| Since 2004 |
Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER) |
| Since 2004 |
European Regulators Group for Electricity
and Gas (ERGEG) |
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