About Peter Schmidt

Peter Schmidt, PhD 
Board Chair
Senior Vice President, Government Partnerships: Rho, Inc.

Peter Schmidt, PhD is Senior Vice President of Government Partnerships at Rho Federal Systems Division where he oversees a portfolio of NIH clinical trials.  He came to Rho from the Brody School of Medicine of East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, where he was Vice Dean and Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Medical Affairs. Schmidt’s focus on movement disorders rose during his decade serving as Senior Vice President and Chief Research and Clinical Officer at the Parkinson’s Foundation where he oversaw research, education, and outreach initiatives. Through his tenure at the Foundation, Schmidt launched and led the Parkinson’s Outcomes Project as PI, the largest clinical study ever conducted in Parkinson’s disease, designed to identify best practices in Parkinson’s disease care. He has advisory engagements in wearable sensors, telemedicine, remote monitoring, and clinical trial design. He has been an invited speaker for NIH and diverse patient and professional conferences. Schmidt previously worked in corporate finance in healthcare innovation, created chronic disease management systems, and served as Chief Operating Officer of a joint venture of Oxford, Stanford, and Yale delivering online education. Educated at Harvard and Cornell, he had a fellowship at New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery.

Fun Fact: “I was in a punk rock band in the 1980s called Zombie Squad, I was the coach of the Cornell rugby team, and I have a patent on a video game design.”