Forbes and Aviram Foundation recently announced the winners of the Aviram Awards at a glittering award ceremony held last week in Marrakech, Morocco. The ex-president of the USA, Bill Clinton was the keynote speaker at the award show.

And, in his speech, President Bill Clinton said “In an era where most people focus on the differences between us, and not on the commonality, the Aviram Awards competition reflects the finding of the common denominator between entrepreneurs and their motivation to action. The business sector must constantly ask whether what it is doing for society and continue to try to create a social impact in a variety of fields such as climate and education”.

Each year the Aviram Awards aims to identify, mentor and support ventures in the Middle East region which have the potential to drive significant social and environmental change through innovation and technology.

At the Awards final last night, the five finalists pitched their ideas in front of an international team of judges including: Ziv Aviram, founder and president of the Aviram Foundation; Randall Lane, editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine; Yassine Laghzioui, director of entrepreneurship & venturing, UM6P, Ben Guerir; Lamiae Benmakhlouf, CEO of MITC — the leading technology park chain in Morocco; and Melda Akin, founder and CEO, D14.AI, Saudi Arabia.

The winners of the Aviram Awards are

• QD-SOL from Israel was named the winner for its innovation which uses photocatalysts combined with sun light to split hydrogen from water, providing affordable, profitable green hydrogen production that is not dependent on electricity grids. QD-SOL’s Vice President of Business Development Arik Ganor accepted the $500,000 cash prize, as well as professional mentoring from globally renowned business leader and Founder of the Aviram Foundation, Ziv Aviram, and media support from Forbes.
• Dan Deviri, CEO and cofounder of Carbon Blue (also from Israel) came in second place and won $100,000.
• Third place was awarded to Youssef Bouyakhf, CEO and cofounder of Moroccan company DeepEcho, who won $50,000.