Ohad Reifen is the policy director at Start-Up Nation Central, a new initiative elaborating on the bestselling book, Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle (2011). He spent seven years working in the budget department of Israel’s Ministry of Finance, where he was involved in a variety of fields including trade and industry, tourism, social security, welfare, immigrant absorption, and strategic planning and oversight. A native of Rehovot, he completed his high-school education in Hong Kong. Following his service in the IDF, he studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he completed a dual BA in economics and the Amirim honors program. He subsequently received an MA in the politics of the world economy at the London School of Economics. Reifen spent a year as a Tikvah Fellow in 2012-2013.