Helga Schmid currently serves as Secretary General at European External Action Service, the position she assumed in 2016 from Deputy Secretary General for Political Affairs at the EEAS (2011 – 2016).
Before joining the EEAS, from 2006 to 2010 she worked as Director of the Policy Planning and Early Warning Unit (Policy Unit) of the High Representative for the CFSP in the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union.
She held several positions at the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin and worked for the Minister’s Office in capacity of Head of the Political Staff (2003-2005) and Deputy Head of the Political Staff (2000 – 2003). She worked for two German Foreign Ministers from 1994 to 2000 as Political Adviser. She was Press and Public Affairs officer at the German Embassy in Washington D.C. from 1991 to 1994 and Assistant Private Secretary to the Minister for European Affairs in 1990 – 1991.
Graduated from Munich University (Ludwig Maximilians Universität) and University of Paris - Sorbonne.