In the Israeli Air Force and the IDF as a whole, commanders traditionally uphold an “open door” policy, allowing soldiers to speak with them directly, raise concerns, and seek solutions. But what if the roles were reversed? What if the defense establishment opened its doors to its personnel to solve its own challenges? For the past eight years, Ori and his partners have been tackling this exact challenge.

Ori began his career in the IDF’s Air Force Innovation Division, where he led the creation of a soldier-driven innovation community. This initiative grew into a network of hundreds of participants, crossing organizational boundaries and ranks—from talented soldiers to the Chief of Staff’s aides. Later, as Deputy Head of the division, he became one of the leaders of the military accelerator program. Among its dozens of initiatives, the program developed solutions to core issues that scaled to an IDF-wide level, including formal development teams, dedicated budgets, and integration into unit doctrines and orders.

Toward the end of his tenure in the Air Force, during a learning session for the former Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. (Res.) Aviv Kochavi, Ori received an invitation to join the founding team of the Shiloach Division in the Planning Directorate as Head of Internal Organizational Innovation.

In this role, Ori collaborated with the IDF Personnel Directorate to create a new military profession and a unique recruitment track for identifying “Innovation Leaders” during mandatory service. Today, dozens of soldiers hold these roles, embedded across the defense system, solving challenges and driving growth and development under the strategic guidance of the Planning Directorate.

Currently, Ori leads professional activities under the Ministry of Defense, focusing on fostering technological and conceptual innovation in unique fields. The solutions developed under this framework have directly saved lives during the “Operation Iron Swords” conflict.

“In the long term, my goal is to harness people and resources to create frameworks that generate value in key business and public domains, addressing the most complex technological and conceptual problems. I am particularly passionate about fields such as space, communication, healthcare, energy, computing, advanced manufacturing, and their intersections. I hope we can develop solutions that elevate the way we live and experience reality,” Ori concludes.