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Ernesto Gottfried Schmitt (born August 1971 in the United States) is a German business person based in the United Kingdom. He grew up in Belgium and Mexico. Schmitt's father was from Germany, and his mother from Uruguay.
Schmitt holds a Master of the Arts from Cambridge (BA/MA) and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from INSEAD. From 2003–2006 he founded and ran the Silverscreen chain of video shops. In April 2011 Schmitt founded the Zeebox second screen service, later renamed Beamly, along with Anthony Rose who had previously headed up the BBC iPlayer project between 2007–2011.
Schmitt previously worked for EMI Music twice, first from 2001–2002 as vice president of strategy and business development. And then again heading EMI Music's catalogue division starting in December 2008 and reporting to Elio Leoni Sceti.
Schmitt founded Peoplesound, an online music store and streaming service.
He had also worked for Boston Consulting Group for four years prior to Peoplesound, for DSG International plc as its group development director, and for Tesco between 2006–2008 as its group ordering director.
In mid-December 2015 Jeremy Clarkson stated to Jeremy Paxman of the Financial Times in reference to W. Chump & Sons that "serious business folk who want to be in on what looks set to be a roaring success will have to carry business cards bearing their name and rank in the hierarchy of, for example, W Chump and Sons (mugs and T-shirts)". One week later on 23 December 2015, W. Chump & Sons (Mugs and T-shirts) (company number 09928481) was incorporated made up of Schmitt, plus Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May and Andy Wilman. Schmitt is also the CEO of the motoring website DriveTribe