The industrial designer Michael Schmidt is the co-founder and CEO at HYVE AG and ICAROS GmbH in Munich. He began his industrial design training with a one-year degree at the Cleveland Institut of Art in the USA, followed by an apprenticeship as a mechanical engineer and graduated in 1997 wih a four-year diploma in industrial design at the University of Applied Science in Munich. In 2000 Michael co-founded the innovative company HYVE AG, in which he is now responsible for the business units Design and Launch. As part of the method Custumized Innovation, developed by HYVE AG, Michael specializes in product innovation, virtual representation and product realization. Renowned companies such as Audi AG, Siemens, Adidas, Lufthansa and Swarowski are successfully implementing the solutions developed by HYVE on the market. ICAROS started as a spinoff of HYVE and it has now become a globally successul supplier of Active VR devices in the area fitness, entertainment and health. Michael is in particularly responsible for the hardware and software development and promoter of eSport innovation.