Selected engagements.

When Helen van Wengen, Dr Khaled Daoud and Dr Rosalind Copisarow began their work, social enterprise was not a recognised concept in Jordan. There was no legal framework, no ecosystem map, no policy language and no institutional support structure. Jordan's micro and small business sector operated largely informally, disconnected from development finance, European markets or impact investment. The European Union (EU) and Oxfam's MedUP programme — Promoting Social Entrepreneurship in the Mediterranean Region, a four-year initiative with a budget of €5.64 million across six countries (Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan) — needed a Jordan country report and needs assessment before programming could begin. But before that research could be written, the ground had to be prepared: the concept introduced, stakeholders convened, government engaged.

Working with Dr Rosalind Copisarow — advisor to the World Bank and Cambridge University, with 40+ years in investment banking, job creation and women empowerment — Helen van Wengen and Dr Khaled Daoud of Daoud Law led the introduction of social enterprise as a distinct business model in Jordan. The team presented to the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, building institutional awareness and policy appetite for the first time. They then led the national country research and needs assessment for MedUP: conducting more than 30 key informant interviews and multi-stakeholder workshops, and producing a full macro, meso and micro analysis of Jordan's emerging social enterprise landscape — legal framework, Social Enterprise Support Organisation (SESO) mapping, financial ecosystem, barriers to scale and evidence-based recommendations at all three levels. Daoud Law was identified as one of only two legal providers for social enterprises in the entire national ecosystem. The findings were published as the working paper "Social Entrepreneurship: A Drive for Inclusive Growth" under the Oxfam MedUP programme.

Published Oxfam MedUP working paper, April 2019, co-authored by Daoud Law. The foundational work fed directly into EU programming in Jordan: MedUP's Jordan activity targeted 100 social enterprises and 60 Social Enterprise Support Organisations (SESOs) for capacity building, financial support and market access; the subsequent Mubaderoon programme — "Enterprises for Social Change: Strengthening Social Enterprise Initiatives to Combat Poverty and Exclusion in Jordan" — was a further direct EU investment in the sector. The academic field the work helped create attracted independent scholarly attention: a peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Springer Nature, 2022) built directly on the ecosystem framework the team originated, attracting over 7,400 accesses and 18 citations.

Jordan's adventure tourism sector — trails, wadis, canyons, the Jordan Trail, thermal springs, diving and paragliding — was expanding rapidly, but the legal infrastructure governing it had not kept pace. Five independent bodies held overlapping and sometimes conflicting authority over the sector: the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (MoTA), the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA), the Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority (PDTRA), the Jordan Valley Authority (JVA) and the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) — each operating under its own laws, regulations and instructions, with no clear legal hierarchy binding them together. Adventure tourism had no dedicated legal definition and no dedicated law. As the EU MEDUSA programme — promoting sustainable tourism across the Southern Mediterranean region — commissioned a full attractions, inventory and mapping study for Jordan, a legal interrogation of the framework was commissioned alongside it: what governed the sector, where the gaps were, and what those gaps exposed.

Helen van Wengen and Dr Khaled Daoud of Daoud Law conducted a comprehensive legal review of the regulatory framework governing adventure tourism in Jordan — mapping all relevant laws, regulations and instructions and stress-testing them against the operational realities of the sector. The review identified a series of critical gaps and misalignments: no legal definition of adventure tourism or adventure tour operators; a fragmented multi-authority landscape with no binding coordination mechanism between the five governing bodies; regulatory instruments containing terminology inconsistencies that left operator certifications on uncertain legal footing; insurance gaps leaving domestic tourists unprotected and international insurance claims vulnerable to challenge; and a private sector operating largely without legal awareness of the framework governing it. The review identified which gaps created the most acute immediate risk — and the sequence in which they needed to be addressed to protect the sector as it grew.

Published as the legal framework section of the MEDUSA Jordan Attractions, Inventory and Mapping Report (September 2020), co-authored by Daoud Law under the EU MEDUSA programme. The framing was deliberate: a sector with unresolved legal misalignments is a sector exposed — to operator liability, to challenged certifications, to disputed insurance claims, to investor risk. Finding the gaps proactively, and mapping the path to address them, is the most effective form of legal safeguarding. The work provided the regulatory foundation for responsible growth of Jordan's adventure tourism sector.

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 VNG International (VNGI), the Netherlands Association of Municipalities' international cooperation arm. Using a World Café methodology, four parallel working tracks mapped barriers and opportunities across: Access to Law (European Union (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, business-to-business (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, meetings, incentives, conferences and events (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 InterContinental Hotels Group (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.

Jordan's National Tourism Strategy 2021–2025 — co-created and authored by Helen van Wengen together with industry stakeholders — and the 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 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 a family-centred eco-tourism village resort built around nature, culture, agricultural heritage and sustainability. The concept includes 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. HoSE produced the phased investment proposition — with a development budget in the range of JD 30 million (approximately $42 million) — covering eco-lodge construction, food and beverage facilities, family leisure, renewable energy infrastructure, water and waste management, and community and cultural facilities. HoSE assembled the specialist consortium across 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.

A Saudi investor on the Mecca–Riyadh corridor held farming land and a mandate to develop it in alignment with Saudi Vision 2030, the Saudi Green Vision and the Sustainable Development Goals (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 (Saudi workforce nationalisation) 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 (Delft University of Technology, engineering and design) 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.

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. The USAID (United States Agency for International Development) LENS enterprise development programme identified this as a structural gap in its 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 micro and small enterprises (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. The programme principle was adopted by the Ministry of Trade and Industry to support start-ups and entrepreneurs, and was taught at Oasis500, community-based organisations (CBOs) and universities across Jordan. It was considered the most impactful USAID programme in its field in-country.