Ferdinand Schmitz was born in Germany in 1957. He s tudied Agricultural Science at the University of Bonn and finished with his Ph.D. During his first career station he built up a new department for agriculture and environment for the Farmers Union. In 1991 he was appointed manging director of the German Plant Breeders Association (BDP). Besides reconstructing the association and developing new fields of business he mainly worked on questions of intellectual property, research and development in plan t science and the free movement of seeds. During this period he was active in many national, European and international organizations e.g. member of the Bord of Directors and chairman of the Committee of Regulatory and Le gal Affaires of (former ESA and) now Euroseeds. He promoted the needs of the seed industry in the triangle of politics, science and economy being in close contact to the member companies and balancing their interests.

In 2010 he left BDP and since then became consultant as partner of FUCHS+PARTNER Unternehmensstrategien. In 2011 (till he was appointed General Manager of German Seed Alliance which is a JV of medium sized German plant breeding companies. As a pilot project he developed a very successful subsidiary of GSA for sales, production and breeding in Russia . Because of this knowledge h e was elected co chairman of the German Ag ribusiness Alliance representing the export oriented German Ag industry since 2022. As such he is member of the Presidium of Ost Ausschuss der Deutschen Wirtschaft.

The guiding theme of his c areer was fostering innovation in seeds under favourable framework conditions and running economically sound and future oriented breeding companies.