Dr Bernhard Walter, long-serving chairman of the supervisory board at Bilfinger, has died at the age of 72.

Dr Walter was elected to the supervisory board of the German-based engineering and industrial services company in 1998. He was chairman of the committee from 2006 until he stepped down in November 2014. He was succeeded by Dr Eckhard Cordes.

The company said Dr Walter had fostered its strategic realignment from a construction company to a services group, a move that it said allowed Bilfinger to gain a large degree of independence from cyclical demand in the construction industry.