Co-founder and President of the Tech Diplomacy Network. Building working relationships between governments, technologists and multilateral institutions on AI governance, digital sovereignty and transatlantic technology cooperation.
More than ten years in tech diplomacy and global AI policy, connecting U.S. and allied governments, defense innovators and multilateral institutions, with direct engagement across the UN, UNESCO, the World Economic Forum, DARPA, the U.S. Space Force and governments from California to the Baltics.
Practical frameworks for responsible deployment, containment and accountability of AI systems, from global conferences to school districts.
How open societies keep control of critical technology, data and infrastructure without closing themselves off.
Defense-tech cooperation between the U.S., EU and the Baltics, including field research with Ukrainian founders, investors and officials.
Teaching mid-career diplomats the geopolitics of emerging technology, and building networks that outlast any single summit.
Convening, advising and teaching where technology policy and international relations meet.
A global network linking diplomats, technologists and policymakers across the U.S., EU and Asia. Partners include the EU Office in San Francisco, EIT, the Asia-Europe Foundation and AI Safety Asia; supported by the Berggruen Foundation and the Montgomery Summit.
Policy strategy, stakeholder briefings and responsible-deployment frameworks for AI governance platforms engaging DARPA and the U.S. Space Force.
AI governance, digital sovereignty, cybersecurity and the geopolitics of emerging technology for mid-career diplomats.
Elected member of the strategic plan task force and the AI working group shaping responsible AI policy for K–12.
Built a global policy network; partnerships with the UN, World Economic Forum, UNESCO, Diplo Foundation, EUNIC and the City of San José. Ran the Tech Diplomacy Prize, honoring Nathaniel Fick, John Chambers and Deemah AlYahya.
Delivered policy recommendations on AI and transit to the mayors of San Francisco, Napa, Santa Fe and Tulsa.
Venture-backed (Betaworks, Lupa Systems) platform for digital asset provenance; advised governments on NFT regulation.
Regulatory and responsible-AI strategy for one of the first AI companion apps, and policy strategy for IoT connectivity.
Grew the fair into a global top-10 event; cultural partnerships with the governments of Austria, Germany, the UK, France, Croatia, Serbia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine.
Tech Diplomacy Global Institute, 2026
Women @ Tech, 2025
2025
2021
Alumna, For International Understanding, 2017
Revista CEBRI
Christina Steinbrecher-Pfandt is a tech diplomacy leader and two-time founder. As Co-founder and President of the Tech Diplomacy Network, she brings together diplomats, technologists and policymakers across the U.S., Europe and Asia on AI governance and digital policy, and she advises U.S. defense-tech companies on government engagement. She teaches tech diplomacy to diplomats through the Diplo Foundation and was named to the Tech Diplomacy Global 50 in 2026.
Before turning to policy full time, she built institutions at the meeting point of culture, markets and technology. She led viennacontemporary into the top ten of global art fairs through partnerships with a dozen national governments, directed Art Moscow, and from 2019 to 2023 co-founded and led Blockchain.art, a venture-backed provenance platform, advising governments on emerging crypto regulation along the way.
Her beginnings are humble. Born in Taldykorgan, Kazakhstan, she emigrated with her family to Germany in 1990, part of an exodus of close to 2.4 million ethnic Germans leaving the Soviet Union. Her parents’ Soviet qualifications were not recognized, so the family turned to cleaning and security work; from the age of eight she cleaned homes and delivered newspapers alongside her mother, and by thirteen she was waitressing 30 hours a week while in school. She paid her own way through graduate school.
That experience still drives her work: a conviction that access to knowledge, culture and technology should not depend on where you happen to be born. She speaks German and Russian natively, works in English, converses in French and Spanish, and lives in Truckee, California.
For speaking, advisory and partnership inquiries.