Ilan Arad was born and raised in a northern Israeli kibbutz. After serving as a commanding officer in the IDF Paratroopers Brigade, he volunteered and later spent years as a helicopter pilot with an air force search and rescue squadron. Arad then went on to become the Israeli Air Force’s spokesperson. Following his discharge in the wake of Operation Desert Storm, Arad opened his own helicopter-piloting company and flight school in the airport of Herzliya.

Arad is divorced, a father of two, and spends his downtime playing ragtime on the piano and working on his next novels.