Great honor for Udo Marin: The long-time VBKI Managing Director (2000 to 2020) receives the Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. The award will be presented on January 19 by Franziska Giffey, Governing Mayor of Berlin, on behalf of the Federal President.

Franziska Giffey acknowledges Udo Marin's services to Berlin and its people and thanks him on behalf of the entire city: "In the 20 years he has worked for Verein Berliner Kaufleute und Industrieller , Udo Marin has shown exceptional social commitment above and beyond his duties as Managing Director. With great dedication and personal passion, he has helped to develop the promotion of the common good as an expression of the social obligation of business into a central pillar of the VBKI's activities. The approximately 2,300 members support a wide range of social projects."

As an example, Ms. Giffey refers to the project initiated by Udo Marin in 2005 "Berliner Lesepaten"the project "Focus on student performance", the 2017 created VBKI-Preis Berliner Galerien, the initiative 'Sport macht Schule', the language competition "Kids fit for Europe" and the refugee projects"Einstieg zum Aufstieg" and the initiative "New paths for Berlin".

Franziska Giffey: "Young people, education, art and culture, the European idea, social work and refugee work are still close to his heart today. Marin's commitment is worthy of all honors. Over two decades, he has rendered many services to the people of our city. Berlin is deeply grateful to Udo Marin for this."

Among other things, in his function as managing director of the refugee project "Einstieg zum Aufstieg" Udo Marin remains strongly committed to the VBKI and to Berlin.

Udo Marin was born in Bonn on October 1, 1955. After studying history, politics and English at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University, he came to Berlin in 1983 as a research assistant and head of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation's liaison office. Marin was Director of the Hermann Ehlers Academy, Director of the Lüneburg Education Center of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and Managing Director of the CDU Economic Council for Berlin, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. He was VBKI Managing Director from June 2000 until his retirement at the end of 2020.