Yaron Rosen

Yaron Rosen (born 1967) is a reserve officer in the IDF, with the rank of Brigadier General. In his last appointment he served as head of the IDF Cyber Staff. He previously served as head of joint operations and helicopters, squadron commander, and helicopter pilot in the air force.
== Biography ==
Yaron Rosen was born in Rehovot. His maternal grandfather was Binyamin Dishon-Deutsch, a gifted chemist at the Ziv Institute (later the Weizmann Institute) who was killed in the War of Independence. At age three he moved to Japan and spent three years there as part of the family's mission there. While in the 11th grade, the family returned to Japan where he completed his high school education and then returned to Israel to enlist in the IDF as a lone soldier.
In January 1986 he joined the Israeli Air Force, Flight Course 115 which he completed with distinction in 1988 in the helicopter division, and then served as a Sikorsky CH-53 pilot in Squadron 118 ('Night Raptors'). In 1995 he was appointed deputy squadron commander, and later moved on to the operations division.
In 1997 Rosen underwent conversion to Cobra AH-1 helicopters, and then in 2000 to Apache AH-64 helicopters, serving as pilot and commander of Squadron 190 ('Magic Touch'), in which he fought during the Second Lebanon War. Later in his service he served as commander of the flight school helicopter division, head of joint operations in the air force operations division (leading Operation Cast Lead) and head of the joint operations unit (during Operation Pillars of Defense (Amud Anan)). In addition, he completed his training as commander of a ground forces division (Division Commanders Course No. 1). In the summer of 2013, he was appointed head of joint operations and helicopters, serving in this until August 2016. In this role he led the reorganization of the air force operations staff ('Winning Staff') and participated in Operation Protective Edge. His next appointment was head of cyber staff in the IDF General Staff, directly subordinate to the Chief of Staff, as the IDF's cyber architect. In this capacity he led the reorganization of the IDF's cyber deployment, with overall responsibility for the budget and budgeting process, human resources development, and arrangement of operational processes on all levels. Under his command, general staff bodies were set up in the operations division, operational units, with emphasis on strengthening IDF cyber defenses. As part of this, the IT division became an operational cyber force, and its name was changed to the Israeli Computer and IT Directorate. During his tenure, international exercises were established with the United States Cyber Command, among others.
== Personal life and education ==
Rosen completed a BA in Economics from Bar-Ilan University, Magna Cum Laude, and an MA in Strategic Studies from the United States Air Force Academy. Rosen is a graduate of the executive course in Terrorism Studies, and a research fellow at Reichman University (IDC Herzliya). In addition, he lectures on cyber security, and has been certified as a director from Tel Aviv University. After retiring from the IDF, he founded and served as CEO and president of a technology startup called Toka, now a company of 70 employees, a leader in building cyber forces for security, espionage, and law enforcement organizations. Toka manufactures products for cyber intelligence gathering from the IoT – advanced, first of a kind capabilities. The company is supported by some of the world's leading venture capital funds, such as A16Z, Dell Technologies, Eclipse Ventures, and more. Rosen is married and father of four.
Category:1967 births
Category:Israeli officers
Category:People from Rehovot