Meet Our Scholars
Hezi Cohen
University of California, Berkeley
Business
He/Him/His
BIPOC
Hezi Cohen is currently an MBA student at Berkeley Haas. Hezi was born and raised in Tel Aviv and Kadima, Israel, to a Jewish family of Persian-Bukharan descent. After almost a decade in the closet, he decided to live his life authentically during his undergraduate studies and came out as a gay man. Determined to help his community, he joined the Israeli LGBTQ+ Youth Movement to support young LGBTQ+ teens and co-founded a community for LGBTQ+ civil servants. After high school, Hezi served his compulsory military service as a combat soldier at the Golani Infantry Brigade of the Israeli Defense Forces. Then he studied Philosophy, Economics, and Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After graduation, he worked as a financial analyst. He then served as an economist at the Budget Department of the Israeli Ministry of Finance. He managed the budgets of the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and led digital transformation projects to improve public services. At Haas, Hezi interned at the Berkeley SkyDeck Fund and co-led the Haas Israel Trek. He also serves as an International Student Representative, VP of Finance of Q@Haas, and Haas Jewish Business Club co-president.