Speakers – Defence Innovation: „Getting the Edge on the Market and in the Battlefield“

Paul Anciaux

In 1990 Paul Anciaux became Master of Political and Social Sciences at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. He completed his military service in 1991.

Between 1991 and 2001 he worked for the multinational pay-television company FilmNet, for software company Intec, and for pharmaceuticals company Nycomed-Christiaens.

In 2001 he joined the European Commission, DG Enterprise and Industry, where he became the policy officer responsible for the EU non-energy extractive industries.

Since May 2012 Paul has become Policy Officer responsible for the Defence Industries. Within the DG Defence Industry and Space, Paul is coordinating various actions in support of defence SMEs, including the network of National Focal Points of the European Defence Fund as well as the European Network of Defence-related Regions.

Isabelle Desjeux

Since 2017, Isabelle Desjeux is Head of European Affairs at Safran Electronics & Defense and also chaired between 2020 and 2022 the ELDIG group of ASD. Prior to this, Isabelle Desjeux has been coordinator for Industry Relations & Support at European Defence Agency from 2011 to 2017. From 2003 to 2011, she has held the position of EU project manager at Sagem Défense Sécurité after a 7 years’ experience in various European affairs related positions at Direction Générale de l’Armement of the French Ministry of Defence

Libor Gajdoš

Graduated from the Slovak University of Technology Bratislava in 1994 in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Radio Electronics.

For more than 20 years, he has successively worked for Siemens and then Atos in positions where he was involved in the entire process of project realisation in the field of information technologies. He has been a member of the company’s management and has been responsible for developing and implementing strategies for the Industry, Energy and Government sectors.

He joined AURA in 2016 as Head of Sales & Marketing Department and is responsible for the development of sales and marketing activities on foreign markets in the area of information systems for military logistics and software for NATO codification. He is also responsible for maintaining long-term partnerships with customers, business partners and suppliers. He is representing AURA in projects using international funding such as the European Defence Fund.

Pablo González

He joined Indra in 2000. In May 2013, he was appointed as Director for NATO and European Defence and Space Programmes being responsible of strategy, business development and institutional
relations for NATO, EDA and European Union Defence and Space initiatives.

Before Indra, he built his experience in the Space field, involved both in technological, managerial and political issues. He was member of the Spanish Delegation to the European Space Agency (ESA) from 1995 to 2000 and Head of Department of ESA Programs in CDTI (R&T Agency of the Spanish Ministry of Industry and Research) from 1997 to 2000. From 1990 to 1995, he worked in the company GMV as project engineer and project manager, in areas related with GNSS and Space Mission Planning, involved in projects like EGNOS, METOP, MSG, FLP or Rosetta.

He served as second lieutenant in the Spanish Air Force from 1989 to 1990, working as Flight Test Engineer in the Spanish Air Force Flight Test Centre in Torrejón Air Base.

Master degree in Aeronautical Engineering by the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) in 1989.

Cecilia Gullström

Cecilia Gullström received the B.Sc. degree in Physics from Uppsala University, Sweden, in 2014, and the M.Sc. degree in Physics from Linköping University, Sweden, in 2018.

She is Research Engineer at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) since 2018, where she works with camouflage systems, space based multi-spectral remote sensing and electro-optical wave propagation in the atmosphere. She has a particular interested in how waves interact with different surfaces in the subarctic environment.
She has participated in the ACAMSII-project, which was funded by the European Union’s Preparatory Action on Defence Research (PADR) under grant agreement No 800871. The project aimed to improve the protection of EU soldiers by using adaptive camouflage to lower the risk of being detected by advanced sensor systems in several wavelength bands. ACAMSII gathered large multinational companies, SME’s and research institutes from Sweden, Germany, France, Lithuania, Portugal and the Netherlands.

Ms. Gullström first joined the Swedish Armed Forces in 2013, and is since 2023 Platoon Commander for a rapid response unit in the Swedish National Security Guards, a branch of the Swedish Armed Forces.

Kristýna Helm

Dr. Kristýna Helm is a Deputy Director of the Defence and Security Industry Association of the Czech Republic. In her role, she promotes international cooperation and supports companies in their domestic and export activities. Kristýna represents the Czech Republic as a Deputy Head of Delegation in the NATO Industry Advisory Group and a National Member of the Science and Technology Board of the NATO STO. The Czech Ministry of Defence also nominated her for the role of the National Focal Point for the European Defence Fund. Kristýna got PhD degree at the University of Economics in Prague, where she lectures Czech and international students in her course Military technologies and international security challenges.

Jiří Hynek

Dr. Jiří Hynek is President and Executive Director of the Defence and Security Industry Association of the Czech Republic. Jiří studied theoretical cybernetics, mathematical information science, and systems theory at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University in Prague in the 1980s. After his studies, he worked for several Czech companies before becoming a business manager. Jiří is Head of the Delegation of the Czech Republic to the NATO Industry Advisory Group and a Member of the Czech Ministry of Defence Committee for Research & Development. Jiří was a candidate in the 2018 Czech presidential election.

Radka Konderlová

Radka Konderlová is the General Director of the Industrial Cooperation Division at the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic. Her area of responsibility is among others defence R&D, EU and NATO innovation initiatives and support of defence industry‘s export activities. Before joining the Ministry of Defence, Radka worked in both private and public sector. She was stationed in Germany, Munich as a project manager at European Patent Office, she also held a position of the Head of Foreing Relations Unit at the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic and also worked for United Nations Development programme in New York. Ms. Konderlova holds a degree in European Studies and International Economic Relations from University of Economics Prague, and a degree in Business Management from Lyon School of Management.

Michael Lauster

Prof. Dr. Dr. Michael Lauster, born 07.05.1958 in Worms/Germany, joined the German Armed Forces in mid-1977. After his education as an officer of the Air Force in Fürstenfeldbruck he conducted studies in aeronautics and space technology at the University of the German Armed Forces in Munich which he completed by the end of 1981.
During his military career he had numerous positions in flying wings, at the German Military Procurement Agency, the German Ministry of Defence and the German Air Force Logistics Command. He mainly worked in the field of development, procurement and operation of modern air systems.
During an appointment to the University of the German Armed Forces in Munich he completed his scientific education with two doctoral degrees in the engineering sciences and in statistics. Prof. Lauster taught statistics at the faculty of economics until he left the air force in parallel to his military assignments.
In September 2012 he quit service as a full colonel and was appointed professor for technology analysis and foresight at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule RWTH Aachen University. Concurrently he took over the position as director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Technological Trend Analysis located in Euskirchen.
In February 2014, he was elected spokesman of Fraunhofer’s Space Alliance and is currently spokesman for the business area space of the Fraunhofer Alliance Aviation & Space.

Hugo Leyte

In 1984, he began his studies at The Netherlands Royal Military Academy and joined the engineers corps. However, after a motorcycle accident, he was unable to continue his military career. In 1992, he began a career in the civilian sector. He started in construction and then progressed to higher management roles in retail marketing, including a seat on the European Board of Directors for Mosaic Group Inc. In 2001, he founded his own company, PROJAXION, which continues to develop innovations for the e-commerce sector. Despite his success in the business world, his interest in security never waned. In 2019, when presented with the opportunity to assist the Dutch Ministry of Defense in developing their innovative capabilities, he decided to resign as CEO of his own company and take on this challenge. He is still grateful for this opportunity to contribute to such an important field and proud of the achievements of the Dutch Armed Forces in developing innovation.

Miroslav Nečas

Business development manager at TOVEK. For more than 15 years, I have been intensively dealing with applications of advanced technologies (ML/DL, NLP, SNA) in the area of decision support in the Defense, Law Enforcement and Intelligence. Currently I’m working on the PEONEER project (EDIDP) focused on perpetual earth observation. I’m the chair of the NIAG Study Group 279 “Define protocols and standards to certify applications using AI within NATO”, I’ve led Data and Big Data Analysis and AI team at NIAG Study SG 252 “Emerging and Disruptive Technologies, in the context of Emerging Powers”. I’m honored to be a member of the Board of directors at the AFCEA Czech Chapter.

Getter Oper

Mrs. Getter Oper is working in the European Commission DG DEFIS (Defence industry and space) as policy officer (in the Unit A3 – European Defence Fund – Defence technologies) since June 2019. She is mainly coordinating cyber defence and cybersecurity policy files and matters.
She is also in charge of the European Defence Fund cyber category content and agenda setting. Her other responsibilities involve also topics such as defence innovation, strategic communication and SMEs participation promotion.
Prior to the secondment to the European Commission, Mrs. Oper served as the Chief Scientific Officer and R&D director in the Estonian Ministry of Defence. She has more than 13 years experience with various European funding instruments and R&D programmes. Since 2016, she has been actively involved as Estonian representative to the European Defence Fund and its’ pre-cursor programmes (PADR and EDIDP) preparations and negotiations.

Federica Valente

Ms. Federica Valente is a distinguished professional who currently serves as Research, Technology and Innovation Coordinator in the European Defence Agency, specifically responsible for the Hub for European Defence Innovation (HEDI), since 2021. In this role, she has designed the portfolio of activities of the Hub, oversees its deployment and manages the relationships with internal and external stakeholders. Moreover, Ms. Valente oversees the development and setting of the Technology Watch and Foresight agenda of the Agency.
With over 15 years of experience in the defence industry, Ms. Valente has held various positions ranging from researcher to program management and business development. She has worked at the Netherlands Applied Research Institute (TNO) and the French Aerospace Lab (ONERA) on incremental R&T projects, short-cycle innovation projects, defence procurement analysis, and operational analysis. During her tenure at TNO, Ms. Valente served as a trusted advisor to the Netherlands Ministry of Defence for European funding instruments such as PADR, EDIDP, and EDF