The newly created role reflects the vision of CTU’s new Rector Michal Pěchouček, who is assembling a leadership team with deep experience from startups, technology companies and international business to accelerate the university’s transformation into one of the world’s leading technical institutions.
Brešová will lead CTU’s industry partnerships, oversee the university’s Industry Relations agenda, and chair its Industry Advisory Board. Her mission is straightforward but far from simple: make it significantly easier for companies to access cutting-edge university research while ensuring breakthrough technologies leave the lab and reach the market.
In a LinkedIn post announcing her new role, Brešová compared the challenge to many of the seemingly impossible projects she has taken on throughout her career.
"My job is to turn those individual bridges into a network, standardize it and take it to a world-class level—simply put, to pave highways where today there are footpaths."
She believes the future success of CTU depends on much closer collaboration between researchers and industry. “World-class research shouldn’t sit in drawers, and great companies shouldn’t miss out on their innovation potential.”
Brešová brings more than 14 years of experience from Europe’s startup ecosystem and global technology companies. She was part of the leadership team that helped scale Kiwi.com from an early-stage startup into one of Europe’s fastest-growing travel tech companies, growing the business to nearly 2,000 employees and around €1 billion in annual gross revenue within just four years.
She later became CEO of augmented reality startup Pocket Virtuality, which was subsequently acquired by defense giant Czechoslovak Group (CSG). Her career also includes serving on the executive leadership team of Groupon following its acquisition by investment group Pale Fire Capital, where she helped lead the transformation of the NASDAQ-listed company.
Most recently, Brešová was a partner at Presto Tech Horizons, the defense and security-focused investment fund jointly backed by Presto Ventures and Czechoslovak Group. She left the fund earlier this year amid broader leadership changes at the fund.
A startup mindset inside one of Europe’s oldest technical universities
Although moving from startups into academia might appear unconventional, Brešová sees familiar patterns. Reflecting on her decision, she quoted the famous philosophy of Pippi Longstocking: “I’ve never done this before, so I’m sure I’ll get it right.” She also revealed that her nine-year-old son immediately embraced the idea, joking that by the time he attends university, CTU could be “a school on par with MIT.”
Brešová says she has often been told her assignments were “mission impossible”, including helping build Kiwi.com into a billion-euro business. This challenge, she believes, is no different.
Lucie is the latest high-profile addition to Rector Michal Pěchouček‘s growing leadership team. Since taking office, Pěchouček has been actively bringing experienced entrepreneurs, startup founders and technology leaders into key university roles. Among them are API design pioneer Jakub Nešetřil, founder of Apiary, which was acquired by Oracle, cybersecurity experts with international experience, and economist Ladislav Krištoufek, known for his work in cryptocurrency research.
