Sophie Schmidt | |
|---|---|
| Education | Princeton University (B.A.) Stanford University (MBA) Harvard University (MPA) |
| Known for | Founder of Rest of World |
| Family | Eric Schmidt (father) Wendy Schmidt (mother) |
Sophie Schmidt (born 1986 or 1987 [1] ) is an American media executive and publisher. She is the founder and publisher of Rest of World , a nonprofit journalism organization focused on global technology news. She is also a director at the Schmidt Family Foundation.
Sophie Schmidt is the daughter of former Google CEO and executive chairman Eric Schmidt and his wife, Wendy Schmidt. [2]
She attended Princeton University, graduating in 2009 with a bachelor's degree in Islamic studies. [3] She wrote her undergraduate thesis on the impact of Internet technology in the Muslim world. [4] Schmidt holds a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University. [1]
In 2013, Schmidt interned at SCL Group, the parent company of Cambridge Analytica. [5] She subsequently worked in Dubai at the Afghan media company Moby Group, and held positions at Google-funded incubator Umbono [6] and Xiaomi in Beijing. [1]
Schmidt later worked as a public policy and communications manager at Uber for three years. [2] Schmidt also serves as a director of the Schmidt Family Foundation. [7]
In January 2013, Schmidt accompanied her father on a visit to North Korea as part of a delegation led by former New Mexico Governor and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson. Sophie documented her impressions in a widely cited blog post, [8] describing highly controlled and staged interactions, including a visit to Kim Il Sung University's e-library, which she characterized as feeling artificial, comparing the unresponsive students to figurines. [9] Her candid, detailed account of her time in the country garnered widespread media attention. [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
In May 2020, Schmidt officially launched Rest of World, a nonprofit media publication covering technology stories outside western countries. [14] In September 2020, Schmidt told The Wall Street Journal that she had already invested $6 million out of a family trust into the nonprofit and planned to spend "as much as $60 million over the next decade to sustain and expand the site and shine a light on technology's impact beyond developed Western countries." [1]
In April 2024, Schmidt was named a 2024 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. [15] [16]
Sophie is Eric and Wendy Schmidt's only surviving child. [17] Her sister, Alison, died in 2017 after a long illness. [18] [19]
She is based in New York. [20]