Outgoing Director, Centre for Knowledge and Technology Transfer, Charles University, Czech Republic
While still a student of law and linguistics at Charles University, and a freelance translator and interpreter, Hana joined the Czech-British team of Pre-Accession Funds with the Ministry of Regional Development. Following her studies, she moved to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a professional diplomat dealing with EU funding and pre-accession negotiations.
Following the successful accession of the Czech Republic to EU in 2004, Hana decided to follow the project management and funding route and accepted a post with United Nations Development Programme and helped to manage the Czech-UNDP Trust Fund which supported development activities including use of innovative technologies in South East Europe and former Soviet Union countries.
She later moved to the United Kingdom as a Project Manager, joining a team dealing with innovative approaches in cooperation of industry and local schools: her other experience includes project management of large international NGO projects, including Sue Ryder International, then several years in a private consultancy company Innovation Leadership Agency specialising in innovative projects.
Since 2011 Hana has been working with Charles University, starting with pre-seed and proof of concept projects and later building the University Innovation Network. She has been part of the management team of the Centre for Knowledge and Technology Transfer since 2014 and in 2016 was appointed Director. She helped to shape the professional Czech national association Transfera and from 2015 – 2018 acted as its Vice-President.
In 2018, with her team establishing, Hana created a subsidiary company, Charles University Innovations Prague, LLC, to which she has been appointed a member of the Supervisory Board.
Hana served on the Board of ASTP from 2019 - 2023.