Arye Kohavi (born 24 June 1967) is an Israeli entrepreneur and innovator, the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

and co-founder of 2D Generation Ltd., which develops

graphene Graphene () is an allotrope of carbon consisting of a single layer of atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice nanostructure.

-based technologies for the semiconductor industry. Arye previously founded and was Co-CEO of

Watergen Watergen Inc. (formerly Water-Gen) is an Israel-based global company that develops atmospheric water generator (AWG) systems. History Watergen was founded in 2009 by entrepreneur and former military commander Arye Kohavi and a team of engineer ...

, which develops water and air systems and dehumidification technologies. Married with four kids, he lives in Neve Monosson, Israel.

Early life and education

Kohavi holds an MBA and a BA in economics and accounting from the

Hebrew University in Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

, and served in the

IDF IDF or idf may refer to: Defence forces * Irish Defence Forces * Israel Defense Forces *Iceland Defense Force, of the US Armed Forces, 1951-2006 * Indian Defence Force, a part-time force, 1917 Organizations * Israeli Diving Federation * Interac ...

as a combat

reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmisher ...

company commander.

Business career

Kohavi founded and was chairman of Composita, a novel E-learning software developer. He also served as an independent

mergers and acquisitions Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

manager, chairman and director in top-end Israeli companies, and as co-CEO at Meitav Corporate Finance, one of Israel's leading investment houses. Kohavi, an

Israeli Special Forces Special forces units in the Israel Defense Forces encompass a broad definition of specialist units. Such units are usually a regiment or a battalion in strength. Sayeret ( he, סיירת, pl.: ''sayarot''), or ''reconnaissance'' units in the ...

officer, began working on a drinking water solution in 2008 after observing the logistics challenges Israeli forces had during the Israeli-Lebanon conflict two years earlier. After several days, most of the convoys were shot up, so the soldier on the front line was out of water. The idea was to provide independence for the troops on the field with a 120-pound system on the vehicle that extracts water from ambient air and is capable of creating in 24 hours at and 55 percent humidity. In June 2009 Kohavi founded Water-Gen (Watergen) a company that designs solutions for supplying water. Water-Gen solutions for the defense sector include: atmospheric water generation (drinking water-from-air), treatment of air conditioning run-off water, and battery-operated mobile water purification units. The company has been selling its products to customers such as the US Army, UK Army, Israel Defense Forces, French Army, and civilian applications such as home-appliance water generator.

Awards

*Arye Kohavi has been chosen as one of the world's 100 Leading Global Thinkers, and one of the world's top innovators of 2014 by ''

Foreign Policy A State (polity), state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterall ...

'' magazine. *Water-Gen was chosen as one of the "Nine Greatest Israeli Inventions of All Times" by the Israeli Ministry of Economy, and

Ynet Ynet (stylized as ynet) is one of the major Israeli news and general-content websites, and is the online outlet for the '' Yedioth Ahronot'' newspaper. However, most of Ynet's content is original work, published exclusively on the website and wri ...

readers. *Water-Gen's Genny was chosen as one of the world's 100 Best Inventions of year 2019, by ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine. *Arye Kohavi was listed as one of the "Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life, 2018", by the ''

Algemeiner Journal The ''Algemeiner Journal'', known informally as ''The Algemeiner'', is a newspaper based in New York City that covers American and international Jewish and Israel-related news. History In 1972, Gershon Jacobson founded the Yiddish-language ...

''.

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kohavi, Arye 1967 births Living people Israeli businesspeople