Daniel Schmücking was born in 1982 in Germany. He studied political science and sociology at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena (Germany) and the Palacky University in Olomouc (Czech Republic). His professional and scientific focus is on political communication and election campaigns. He worked as a campaigner for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). In his dissertation he devoted himself to the topic of the effects and development of negative political advertising in Germany. As part of his doctoral studies, he spent time at the University of Maryland (USA) and the University of California (USA). He taught at universities in Jena (Germany), Erfurt (Germany) and Budapest (Hungary). From 2015-2017, he headed the Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s (KAS) office in Mongolia. Since the beginning of 2018 he has been country director of KAS in Cambodia. In the beginning of 2021, he went on a special mission to become the campaign manager of CDU for the elections in the free state of Thuringia. Since April 2022 he is additionally in charge as interim Country Director of KAS Philippines.