Nils Schmid

Nils Schmid (2012)

Nils Schmid (born July 11, 1973, Trier) is the leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany in Baden-Württemberg.

Professional career and party politics

After his A-levels at Eduard Spranger School, Filderstadt, in 1993, Schmid studied law at the University of Tübingen. He worked as a lawyer, and in 2006 he received his doctorate (summa cum laude) from Tübingen University. But then he gave up his professional career in favour of politics.

Schmid joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1991 - and in 1993 he was already elected chairman of the Esslingen district of the Young Socialists in the SPD, becoming deputy chairman of the Young Socialists of Baden-Württemberg in 1996. In 1997 Schmid was elected as a member of Baden-Württemberg's state parliament. There he gradually developed into his party's main speaker on financial affairs.

He was elected deputy leader of the Social Democratic MPs in the Baden-Württemberg parliament, and, in 2009, he became the leader of his party in that state (after winning a poll among its members). After the Baden-Württemberg general elections of 2011 Schmid became Deputy Prime Minister of the state of Baden-Württemberg, as well as its Minister of Financial and Economic Affairs. He is a member of the German-French Friendship Group set up by the German Bundesrat and the French Senate as well as of the German-Russian Friendship Group set up in cooperation with the Russian Federation Council.

In the negotiations to form a Grand Coalition following the 2013 federal elections, Schmid was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on economic policy, led by Ilse Aigner and Hubertus Heil.

Other activities

• Baden-Württemberg International, Ex-Officio Chairman of the Supervisory Board
• L-Bank, Ex-Officio Chairman of the Supervisory Board
• Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board
• EnBW, Member of the Supervisory Board
• KfW, Member of the Supervisory Board
• Baden-Württemberg Stiftung, Member of the Supervisory Board
• Carlo Schmid Foundation, Chairman of the Board of Trustees
• Phi Delta Phi – Richard von Weizsäcker Inn Tübingen, Honorary Member
• Vereinigung Baden-Württembergische Wertpapierbörse, Member of the Board of Trustees
• Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg, Member of the Board of Trustees (2003-2011)
• Akademie Schloss Solitude, Member of the Board of Trustees (2007-2011)