Kristina Soukupová

Founder and President, DefSec Innovation Hub z.u. (Czech Republic)

Kristina Soukupová, the founder and President of DefSec Innovation Hub, is a long time defense consultant operating at the highest levels with the government and military. With a PhD from the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, her primary area of expertise is advising major international corporate and government clients on defense and security innovation, procurement as well as corporate strategies and their implementation. Kristina has a long history working with NATO focusing on Emerging Disruptive Technologies (EDTs). In 2018 Kristina founded DefSec Innovation Hub, which is a Czech non profit organization assisting Armed Forces in the Czech Republic and wider CEE region with innovation, introduction and implementation of EDTs. To this end, Kristina was recently tasked by the leadership of the Czech General staff to organize series of events focusing on EDTs. DefSec is the only independent organization in a wider NATO Innovation Network. She designed and led many innovative educational programs for both military and civilian audiences and contributed to strategic documents on both national and NATO level. Most recently Kristina acquired a license to open a Czech Chapter of FightClub, a gaming experimentation group seeking to improve the efficacy of warfighting through civil-military cooperation.