Ursula Schmidt

Independent Consultant (Schmidt Advisory)

Ursula Schmidt is former Executive Vice President Audit & Compliance at RTL Group, having led the Internal Audit and Compliance practice for 15+ years. Together with her team, she investigated compliance cases and ran a multitude of audit projects worldwide. She also served as Secretary to the group´s Audit Committee. Previously, Ursula held senior positions in strategy and controlling at RTL Group and served as chairman of the audit committee of Channel Five in the UK. After having helped operations in 30+ countries set up compliance frameworks, internal controls, and anti-fraud processes, Ursula set up her own company to share her broad experience in Internal Audit and Compliance on a wider scale.
Ursula is Board member of IIA Luxembourg and serves as an independent non-executive director on several boards in Luxembourg. She is a regular conference speaker and webinar host on all things internal audit and compliance and publishes extensively, on LinkedIn and other media.
Her continuous engagement in the field of Internal Audit was recognized in 2024 by Richard Chambers, former President and CEO of the Global Institute of Internal Auditors, with the prestigious “Internal Audit Beacon Award”. Already earlier in 2023, Richard Chambers acknowledged her as one of the “top leaders in the profession to follow in 2023”.
Ursula holds a PhD in Economics, is a Certified Compliance & Ethics Professional – International (CCEP-I.) with the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE), and is a Certified Director and Certified Financial Expert at Deutsche Börse. She speaks German, French, English and Dutch.