Selected engagements.

Start-ups and micro-enterprises in Jordan failed at a high rate within two years — not from lack of ambition but from legal blind spots: no awareness of their rights and duties, no access to affordable legal support, no help with registration and licensing. USAID's LENS programme identified this as a structural gap in its enterprise development work and commissioned a solution. Most legal services in Jordan were priced out of reach for small businesses, and most enterprise programmes ignored the legal dimension entirely.

Daoud Law Office, led by Dr Khaled Daoud with Helen van Wengen, designed and implemented Ishtaghel Sah — Arabic for "Work Right" — a legal basic awareness programme for MSEs, home-based businesses and start-ups, funded by USAID/LENS. The programme launched in July 2016 and ran as one of the most impactful programmes within the USAID beneficiary portfolio. It delivered legal literacy through training and capacity building; knowledge of duties and rights; access to affordable legal support on a need-to-access basis; and hands-on help with enterprise registration and licensing. A Trainer of Trainer module was built in from the start to create sustainable continuity beyond the funded period. Over 68% of participants were women; 30% were youth including refugees. Track record partners included Oasis500, Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship, SPARK, Crown Prince Foundation, Zain ZINC, Amman Chamber of Commerce, Fab Lab Irbid and Luminus Education.

A running programme, delivered over two and a half years from July 2016. A Trainer of Trainer module was built in from the start to ensure the model could live beyond the funded period — and it did. By 2023 the approach was being taken to scale through a cooperation proposal with EJABI (EuroJordanian Advanced Business Institute), reaching donors, actors and stakeholders across the enterprise support sector in Jordan and the region.

Jordan's tourism strategy (JNTS 2021–2025) and Economic Modernisation Vision (2023–2033) both call for regional diversification and investment in northern regions beyond the traditional Petra-Wadi Rum corridor. The landholder in Huwwara, northern Jordan, held terrain with olive groves, wheat fields and herbal cultivation traditions, alongside proximity to Irbid, Ajloun and Umm Qais — ideal for family and multi-day travel. What was missing was the concept, the investment structure, the consortium and a credible proposition to take to capital. International arrivals in Jordan reached 1.5 million in Q1 2025 alone — up 13% year on year. The global ecotourism market, valued at $216 billion in 2023, is projected to reach $760 billion by 2032.

HoSE developed the full concept for the Huwwara Eco-Tourism Village Resort — a family-centred destination built around nature, culture, agricultural heritage and sustainability. The concept includes 100 eco-lodges; farm-to-table gastronomy from the land itself; wellness programming drawing on Jordanian herbal traditions, hammam culture, yoga and artisan craft; olive harvesting and oil-pressing experiences; therapeutic trails and storytelling; and a full festival and events calendar (Olive Harvest Festival, Herb and Wellness Week, Cultural Night, Seasonal Food Markets). HoSE produced the investment proposition with a phased $100 million budget: Phase 2 construction alone covering 100 eco-lodges ($25M), restaurants and food services ($7.5M), family leisure facilities ($10M), renewable energy infrastructure ($6M), water and waste management ($5.5M) and community and cultural facilities ($3M). HoSE also assembled the specialist consortium — covering agriculture, masterplanning, construction, mechanical engineering, wellness, vocational education, governance and legal review — and managed the contract review through Daoud Law Office.

Full concept proposal submitted May 2025; funding contract signed May 2025. Phase 1 — planning, community engagement, land activation and architectural design — is complete. Phase 2 implementation is underway. The project is positioned as a national reference point for responsible family travel and a direct delivery against Jordan's northern tourism expansion mandate.

Jordanian social enterprises producing quality handmade goods — natural cosmetics, vegan food, textiles, ceramics, olive wood, accessories — made by women, refugees, youth and people with disabilities had no clear route to the European consumer market. The products existed. The craftsmanship existed. What was missing was a structured pathway through the legal, market, customer and investment barriers that stand between a Jordanian micro-enterprise and a Dutch ethical consumer. HoSE identified Amsterdam as the bridge: a multicultural city with strong and growing demand for ethical, handmade and natural products, and home to institutions with both the appetite and the instruments to open the corridor.

HoSE co-organised the Bridging Worlds Round Table with SEEDJordan on 1 February 2019 at the Amsterdam in Business premises of the Municipality of Amsterdam — supported by the City of Amsterdam and VNGI. Using a World Café methodology, four parallel working tracks mapped barriers and opportunities across: Access to Law (EU certification, trade agreements, technical standards for food, cosmetics and textiles); Access to Market (Dutch buying models, wholesale fairs, online platforms, narrative and niche positioning); Access to Customer (digital marketing strategies, storytelling, B2B targeting); and Access to Investment (Dutch Good Growth Fund, CoopMed EU social impact fund, Triodos Bank, crowd-funding, receivables finance structures). Nine Jordanian producer partners were represented: Jabri (dates and baklava), Bloom (Dead Sea cosmetics), Jordan Craft Center, Ajloun Women community, Desert Rose, Terracotta, Hunaya, Sand Rose and SEP Jordan. Other participants included SPARK, Fair Fabrics, the City of Amsterdam, Ruwwad, Oxfam and Plan International.

A structured one-day dialogue event with documented outcomes across four market-access dimensions — legal, market, customer and investment — producing a concrete action map for the Netherlands–Jordan trade corridor. Delivered in partnership with SEEDJordan, with the institutional support of the Municipality of Amsterdam and VNGI.

A hotel opening under an international luxury brand faces a commercial challenge that goes beyond construction timelines and fit-out schedules. Revenue streams must be established before the first key is turned: pricing architecture, distribution and channel strategy, corporate account acquisition, MICE pipeline, commercial team in place and performing. Owners and management companies need someone who has done it before, who knows how international brands operate from the inside, and who can be trusted to build the commercial function without supervision — in markets where the brand may be new and the team may not yet exist.

Helen van Wengen led six pre-opening and start-up assignments across Europe, the Middle East and Asia for some of the world's most recognised hospitality brands — including IHG, Marriott, Starwood, Wyndham, Six Senses, Fairmont and Anantara. Each assignment involved building the commercial function from scratch: revenue architecture and rate strategy, distribution and channel setup, pre-opening sales and account development, corporate and MICE account acquisition, commercial team hiring and development, and full readiness for commercial launch. Across all six assignments, the opening was commercially ready on schedule. In several cases the engagement extended through the opening period and into the early trading phase to stabilise revenue performance.

Senior commercial leadership, embedded within each property's pre-opening team. The engagements spanned Europe, the Middle East and Asia — across city hotels, resort properties and branded residences, from single-flag openings to multi-property launches. Client names are held in confidence in accordance with professional obligations; brand names are listed above.

A Saudi investor on the Mecca–Riyadh corridor held farming land and a mandate to develop it in alignment with Saudi Vision 2030, Green Vision and the SDGs. The project required credible international PMO leadership capable of assembling a large multi-discipline consortium and producing a strategic concept backed by professional architecture, agri-science, wellness and governance expertise — one that would hold up commercially, developmentally and in the eyes of the Saudi government.

HoSE was appointed international lead and PMO. We assembled a Dutch-Saudi consortium spanning landscape architecture (Baljon, Amsterdam), architecture and construction, organic agriculture and hydroponics, spa and wellness, vocational education, renewable energy and governance. The concept: a Sustainable Agricultural, Tourism and Educational Oasis with four integrated revenue pillars — Agriculture (organic farming, hydroponics, aquaponics, fish farming, blockchain-traced supply), Tourism and Wellness (authentic experiences, spa and health programming, modular hospitality), Education and Vocation (youth employment, women engagement, Saudisation pathways, university partnerships), and Innovation (Vision 2030 alignment, agri-tech, cultural integration). The concept includes a SWOT analysis, competitive benchmarking against AlUla and Bali's Green School, high-level revenue modelling across hospitality, food production, educational programming and film set creation. HoSE delivered the strategic framework, PMO and governance structure, branding and revenue architecture. Wageningen University (agriculture and food) and TU Delft (technical and engineering) were in active communication with the consortium.

Strategic concept and master plan consortium proposal submitted May 2023; full consortium governance and partner structure; SWOT analysis, revenue modelling and Vision 2030 / SDG alignment framework.