Roland Koch was born on 24 March 1958 in Frankfurt am Main. Having grown up in Eschborn, he still lives there today with his wife, Anke. He has two sons and two granddaughters.

After graduation and basic military service, he pursued a law degree and established himself as an independent lawyer. Specialising in economic and competition law, he practised this profession until 1999.

In 1990/91 and 1993-99, he was the chairman of the CDU parliamentary group. From 1998-2010 he was chairman of CDU in Hesse. Since 1987, Roland Koch has been directly elected in the Hessian Parliament.

On 7 April 1999, Roland Koch was elected for the first time as the Minister President of the state of Hesse; after the successful parliamentary elections in 2003, he received renewed confidence on 5 April yet again when he was re-elected by a majority to the Hessian state parliament. After his phase as acting Minister President in 2008, he was re-elected as the Minister President of Hesse in 2009.

Privately, he is known for his love of cooking and he is indeed a good cook (in 2003 he was awarded “Hobby chef of the year”). He also likes to read a lot and, whenever possible, visits art museums.

In November 2006, Roland Koch was elected as the Vice Chairman of the CDU at the party conference in Dresden and was reappointed to the role in December 2008. Since his retirement as CDU Chairman in 2010 he has been an honorary chairman of the Hessian CDU. On 31 August 2010, he resigned of his own volition as Minister President of Hesse.

In September 2010, Roland Koch was awarded the “Silver Award” by the American Chamber of Commerce, of whose board of directors he was a member for several years.

After his time as Minister President, Koch became Chairman of the Executive Board of Bilfinger SE from 2011 to 2014.

Since 2011, he has served as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of UBS Deutschland AG and, following the merger, as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of UBS-Europe SE until 2021. Roland Koch is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Peter Dussmann Stiftung and its Vice Chairman as well as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Dussmann KGaA. He is also a member of the Supervisory Board of Vodafone Deutschland, a member of the Supervisory Board of iQ International AG, Zug/Switzerland. He is a member of the Advisory Board of ABG Capital.

In October 2017, the Hanoi Law School awarded him an honorary doctorate. In September 2018 he was also awarded an honorary doctorate by the Law Faculty of the European Business School Wiesbaden.

Roland Koch teaches at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management as a Professor of Management Practice in Regulated Environments. Since 2022, he has been co-director of the Frankfurt Competence Center for German and Global Regulation (FCCR), which he co-founded.