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From Startup Nation to Startup Region

Avi Hasson’s career has given him a front-row view of a Middle East economy pivoting from resource wealth toward innovation-led growth, creating new pathways for regional cooperation.

​When the Abraham Accords were signed, they marked a historic diplomatic moment. For Avi Hasson, they transformed years of informal regional engagement into a framework for open economic collaboration.

The Middle East, Hasson argues, is in the midst of a profound transition. Long defined by conflict and resource-based economies, the region is now attempting to reinvent itself around human capital, innovation, and knowledge. As CEO of Startup Nation Central, Hasson operates at the intersection of technology and diplomacy, helping turn a geopolitical opening into a citizen- and business-led reality.

A Career Built Inside Innovation

Hasson’s professional path mirrors the evolution of Israel’s innovation ecosystem itself. Over three decades, he has moved between the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. His roles have included technology executive, early-stage investor in Israel and the United States, and Israel’s Chief Scientist, where he helped shape national innovation policy and founded what would become the Israel Innovation Authority.

Today, at Startup Nation Central, where he serves as CEO, Hasson brings those perspectives together as regional cooperation becomes more open and consequential. The organization connects Israel’s technology ecosystem with multinational companies, investors, governments, and academic institutions seeking practical engagement. The Abraham Accords created the political space for that work to expand.​

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Innovation as a Common Language

Hasson describes innovation not as a slogan, but as a natural bridge. Unlike ideology or politics, it brings together people motivated by shared problems and measurable outcomes. Scientists, entrepreneurs, and business leaders, he notes, tend to speak the same language regardless of nationality.

That insight became newly actionable after the Abraham Accords. While regional ties existed before, the agreements allowed them to expand openly and at scale, with the backing of political leadership. “It was obvious we were entering a new era,” Hasson recalls. “One where we could stop looking at the past and start building the future together.” 

From Diplomatic Framework to Economic Engine in a Shifting Region

Startup Nation Central’s strategy is deliberately two-layered. On one level, it aligns with long-term national economic and development visions across the region. On another, it focuses on building direct, people-to-people and business-to-business relationships that make collaboration durable.

As the region’s economic foundations begin to shift, so does the logic of cooperation. “Most of the countries in the region are trying to move away from being economies based on natural resources to more of a knowledge economy,” Hasson says. The transition has reframed familiar pressures as shared problems. Issues once addressed largely within national borders, from food security and water scarcity to healthcare modernization and digital infrastructure, increasingly require cross-border solutions.

Within this transition, the relevance of Israel’s innovation ecosystem has become more pronounced. Decades of building a technology-driven economy under conditions of limited natural resources have produced experience that many regional partners now find immediately applicable.

Israeli companies have spent years developing solutions in areas such as water management, digital health, cybersecurity, and agricultural technology, often under constraints similar to those facing neighboring countries today. In a region seeking to move from resource dependence to innovation-led growth, that accumulated know-how has become indispensable to making the transition real.