Margit BATTHYANY-SCHMIDT

Description

WUSME Ambassadress in Hungary

Margit Batthyány-Schmidt (born in Budapest on August 16, 1966) is a philanthropist, founding member, and president of the Hungarian Batthyány Foundation and the Union of Hungarian Women Association. Her remarkable professional career is marked by her various leadership positions and commitment to social causes.
Her academic journey reflects a broad range of interests and dedication. Between 2018 and 2020, she completed her studies as a security policy analyst at the Milton Friedman University in Budapest. From 2004 to 2008, she studied sociology and human resource management at the Faculty of Humanities at Kossuth Lajos University in Debrecen. She then obtained a degree in mental health at Károli Gáspár Reformed University between 2005 and 2007. Earlier in her academic career, she earned a degree in international marketing from the College of Foreign Trade in Budapest (1989–1992), a teacher’s degree in Russian language and literature from ELTE (1988–1991), and a primary school teaching qualification from the Budapest College of Education (1984–1987).
Throughout her professional career, she has held numerous important positions. Since 2023, she has been an official member of the Women’s Committee for Rural Women at COPA-COGECA, a member of COFACE Families Europe since 2021, and vice president of the Women Entrepreneurs Platform (WEP) since 2020. She has been an expert at the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) since 2017 and previously served on the COPA-COGECA Executive Committee. From 2016 to 2023, she was a member of the Board of Directors of WUSME (World Union of Small and Medium Enterprises) and is the president of the Hungarian Batthyány Foundation. Over the years, she has also played significant roles in other organizations and foundations, including serving as the founding executive director of the New Society Salon and managing director of the Batthyány Heritage Utilization Ltd.
Regarding her academic work, her research has primarily focused on adaptation strategies in rural economies and analyzing deviant behavior within families. In 2020, her work on women’s opportunities in a traditionally male-dominated sector during generational change was published in the journal New Labor Review.
Among her many accolades is the Zichy Antónia Award, which she received in 2018, along with the Széchenyi Award in the social enterprise category. In her personal life, she is the mother of three children: Pechacek Nathalie Margarete, Katalin Margit Batthyány, and Ádám Boldizsár Batthyány.