Tribute published by GPMF in
early March
Tributes from PM leaders around
the world
Remembrance on Roland Gutsch
by Klaus Pannenbäcker

Tribute published in early March 2009 by the German Association for Project Management (GPM)

After a long illness, GPM’s honorary president Roland Gutsch died on 20 February 2009 at the age of 83 at his home in Bremen. His death marks the loss of our founder and long-time president.

Roland Gutsch was truly the champion of IPMA (previously known as INTERNET). Together with experts from the USA and many European countries, he founded the international community for project management in Vienna in 1965. Vienna also provided the venue for the first INTERNET world congress, which took place not long after this in 1967. Assisted by Professor Dr Hasso Reschke and Professor Dr Heinz Schelle, Roland Gutsch himself organised and led the 6th world congress in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1979. In the same year, working in collaboration with other like-minded colleagues, the trio founded the GPM Deutsche Gesellschaft für Projektmanagement e.V. (the German association for project management).

Roland Gutsch worked tirelessly in and was the driving force behind both organisations, one national and the other international. Thanks to the support of his employer Dornier he was able to lend them the extensive support they needed in the early days of their existence and was instrumental in laying the solid foundations on which they were built and still thrive today. Working at the forefront of the two organisations, he held the post of IPMA President for many years and spent 12 years chairing the GPM.

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