NEXT

Matthias Schmidt is curating the branding track at NEXT11 together with Luise Hübbe. He is Partner and Executive Board Member of Scholz & Friends Group and Creative Managing Director at Scholz & Friends Hamburg.

Matthias Schmidt was born in Frankfurt in 1970. He studied social and economic communication at the University of the Arts in Berlin and obtained his degree in communication in 1998. He started his career in 1998 as a junior copywriter at Scholz & Friends Berlin, where he became a senior copywriter one year later and, in 2001, Creative Director and Family Head. In 2005, Schmidt, who has received numerous national and international awards, was appointed to the Management Board of Scholz & Friends Hamburg. In this function, he is responsible for the creative performance of the agency. In April 2008, he was appointed Executive Board Member of the Scholz & Friends Group.

Schmidt has been a member of the Art Directors Club Deutschland since 2001. His works scooped prizes, among others, in Cannes, at the ADC Deutschland and in New York, at the Clio awards and at the London International Advertising Award. From 2006 until 2009, Matthias Schmidt earned his Abschluss Master of Business Administration (MBA) at the Berlin School for Creative Leadership. In 2009, he was member of the jury at the international award festival Cannes Lions and jury president of the Eurobest.