[1][2] Following Peter Struck's death in 2012, Beck – together with Dieter Schulte – became the chair of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation; he served until 2020, when he was replaced with Martin Schulz.

As Minister President he was known for his centrist approach, which is also apparent from the choice of his coalition partner (the liberal FDP instead of the centre-left Green Party, with which the SPD has recently allied itself).

During his time in office, Beck's decisions in Rhineland-Palatinate to increase efficiency in the state government via administrative reorganisation, and to introduce full-day schooling and free kindergartens, drew national attention.

He had been under pressure for weeks over the bankruptcy of the Nürburgring motorsports complex in Rhineland-Palatinate, one of the world's most famous race tracks.

[7] When Matthias Platzeck had to resign for medical reasons in 2006, Beck was officially elected as chairman of the SPD with the approval of 95% of the delegates.

[9] Beck decided not to join the cabinet and succeed Vice-Chancellor Franz Müntefering because it would have prevented him from criticizing Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government.

[10] According to public opinion polls during his time as party chairman, his possibilities of becoming Chancellor, if he had run for this office in the 2009 election, had been very limited.

During his time in office as party leader, Beck most notably negotiated an agreement with Merkel’s Christian Democrats in April 2017 on a partial privatization of national railway Deutsche Bahn's passenger and freight divisions.

[15] In March 2017, Beck was appointed the government's official commissioner for the victims of the attack at the Christmas market at Berlin's Breitscheidplatz on 19 December 2016.

[16][17] Near the end of 2006, Beck recommended to Henrico Frank, an unemployed construction worker from Wiesbaden, to wash himself and shave so he could get a job.