Matthias Kurth was appointed president of the Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway (BNetzA) in March 2001. BNetzA is the sector-specific competition authority for energy, telecommunications and postal markets in Germany including frequency management, digital signature and railway. Matthias joined BNetzA as Vice President in 2000. Prior he was since July 1999 member of the management of Colt Telecom GmbH as Director Business Development, Law and Regulation. From 1994 to 1999, Matthias Kurth worked as State Secretary in the Hesse Ministry of Economics, Transport, Technology and European Affairs. He was member of the Hesse Land Parliament from 1978 to 1994 and worked as lawyer in Hesse.
Matthias Kurth was as member of the Hesse government Representative of the State of Hesse in the Regulatory Council for Posts and Telecommunications, cooperating in framing the Telecommunications Act and Representative of the State of Hesse in the Committee of the Regions of the European Union, focusing trans-European networks, information and communications technology, and air transport.