Career
Schmidt is considered the author of the "German Method" of privatization, in which shares of a state-owned company are tendered to the private sector buyer offering the best bid considering a number of factors including price, numbers of jobs guaranteed, environmental remediation, and other concerns. Schmidt was the chief privatization advisor to Estonian Prime Minister Maart Laar, and is a former economics minister of the German Lander of Saxony. From 1998 to 2001 he was Commissioner of the Securities Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In 1998 he was awarded the of Estonia for his work with the German Treuhandanstalt in Estonia.
