Born in 1944, Professor Beckervordersandforth studied mechanical engineering at Aachen Technical University, specializing in process engineering and took his doctorate in coal gasification research. He holds teaching assignments at the University of Bochum and either chairs or sits on a number of influential committees of gas and water associations in Germany.Professor. He has held the position of Head of the Development and Scientific Services Division of Ruhrgas, the leading gas company in Germany, since 1990.
In accepting this appointment as president of CEN, Christian Beckervordersandforth noted, “Standardization is crucial to an organization like Ruhrgas which acts internationally. That is why my Board is allowing me to devote considerable resources to chairing CEN. It is very clear to me that there have been striking achievements in European standardization but the time taken to finish standards is still too long and that must be attacked by everybody, not just a few people in Brussels. So I will work to continue to reduce this development time but keeping the values and integrity of European Standards as we know them.”
The European Norms (ENs) produced by CEN become applicable in the European Union (EU), the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), and the Czech Republic. It works on the basis of consensus between these 19 national members, which are the standards bodies of those countries. To date, CEN has produced more than 6300 standards.