Sascha L. Schmidt is a senior professor and director of the Center for Sports and Management (CSM), the "Future of Sports" being one of his key research areas. He studied economic sciences at the Universities of Essen and Zurich, where he also graduated with a doctorate.

By invitation of the Faculty of Harvard Business School he worked as a visiting scholar in Boston, after which he went on to join strategy consulting. After several years at McKinsey, Sascha was appointed director of the ICS research program at the University of St. Gallen, and qualified as a professor at EBS University. He then returned to the world of business, building up the branch of the global recruitment agency a-connect in Germany.

In 2011, he returned to academia by founding the Institute for Sports, Business and Society at EBS University. Sascha joined the WHU in 2014.