44 | MARCH 14 • 2024 
J
N

I

sraeli entrepreneur Hila 
Rom was 30 years old when 
she visited New York City 
for the first time, pitching her 
startup company to potential 
investors. The businesswoman 
with a law degree said she had 
just raised enough seed money 
for her startup and was excited 
to network in the United States 
when she got the call from her 
base. 
It was 2008 and Operation 
Cast Lead, the second stage of 
the Gaza War, had just begun. 
So Rom, a distinguished officer 

in the IDF, dropped her sched-
uled business meetings and 
booked a flight home to Israel. 
“One minute I am a global 
entrepreneur doing business in 
New York and the next minute, 
I am called up to my base to be 
a soldier,” Rom said. 
Such is the life of Israeli 
businesspeople and entrepre-
neurs as they navigate the bal-
ance between carrying on their 
civilian pursuits and being 
called up by the reserves in 
times of war. 
Now at 45, Rom is the 

founding partner of Herzliya-
based RUNI Ventures, a 
venture capital outpost of 
Reichman University, Israel’s 
only private university with 
a special emphasis on busi-
ness and entrepreneurship. 
Reichman University alumni 
have launched more than 600 
startups pulling in $8.7 billion 
in funding with the creation 
of 21 unicorn companies 
(startups each valued over $1 
billion). 
During her interview with 
the JN, Rom’s husband had just 

returned home on leave after 
serving on the front in Gaza 
for 110 days. Like many Israeli 
women, she has been single-
handedly juggling a career and 
home life as 360,000 reservists 
have had to leave their jobs, 
families and university studies 
to fight. Rom also served in 
the early days following Oct. 7 
as an officer in the IDF para-
trooper’s unit. 
Throughout the war, Rom 
said investors continue to 
recognize the value of the 
work coming out of Reichman 

Hila Rom looks to bring Reichman University’s 
RUNI Ventures to Michigan.

Spreading Israeli 
Innovation

STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP

Reichman 
University

Hila Rom