THE FOUNDER'S STORY
PASSION | PURPOSE | PERSEVERANCE
Javara is founded by Helianti Hilman in October 2008, a trained Intellectual Property Rights lawyer and consultant on rural economic development. Upon her interactions with smallholder farmers when providing pro bono legal advice for them, she found herself fascinated with the wealth of Indonesia’s food biodiversity heritage and indigenous food culture. Being someone who loves to travel, cook, and enjoy a different spectrum of food, she understands the deep concerns of the indigenous farmers that such heritage and culture are being forgotten and lost at a very fast pace.
Inspired by the passion, dedication, and perseverance of the smallholder farmers and indigenous communities who have against all odds, striving to keep alive the food biodiversity heritage as well as indigenous wisdom and spiritualism on the sustainable food system, she decided to leave her consulting work and founded Javara. Since then, through Javara she has been immersing herself with the mission of delivering food biodiversity to the wider market and mobilizing market participation through sustainable consumption.
To further support the mission, in 2017 she founded Sekolah Seniman Pangan, an action-based entrepreneurial learning facility and business ecosystem to nurture the growth of food entrepreneurship among rural youth and women.
OUR VALUES
Good food is a leisure
Good health is a treasure
Good deed is a pleasure
CAPTAIN OF THE JOURNEY
HELIANTI HILMAN
FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE CHAIRPERSON
Ms. Hilman obtained her Master of Laws degree in Intellectual Property Rights from King’s College, University of London. She also completed leadership programs including at Harvard Kennedy School and Monash University.
Ms. Hilman is a multi-award-winning social entrepreneur. She has been awarded as EY 2013 Indonesia’s Social Entrepreneur, and Schwab Foundation 2015 Social Entrepreneur, 2016 Top 10 Asia Top Social Entrepreneur, 2019 Leadership Energy Award. Ms. Hilman has served as Slow Food International Advisory Council member (2012 – 2016) and currently serves as Asia NZ Foundation Honorary Advisor (2019 – present) and UNCTAD E-Trade Women Advocate (2019-2020).
Ms. Hilman has been speaking in many high-profile international forums, including Obama Foundation’s 2019 Asia Pacific Leaders Forum, 2019 Social Enterprise World Forum in Ethiopia, and 2020 World Economic Forum in Davos, Swiss. Her work has been profiled by various media, including Guardian UK (2015), Channel News Asia (2017), The Bangkok Post (2018), and DW TV (aired 11 February 2019).
OUR PROFILE VIDEO
JAVARA CULTURE
SHOP | EAT | LEARN
SHOP
Javara Culture provides the widest selection of Indonesia’s fine artisan natural and organic food products. Hundreds of them are already certified organic for the US, Europe, and Japan, as well as Halal Certified. Javara’s products have also been exported to over 20 countries on five continents.
EAT
Savor on the scrumptious food and beverages at Dapur Javara, which recipes and team are developed with passion to highlights the beauty of Indonesia’s heritage food ingredients. Our restaurants only use 100% local, traceable, and organically & naturally-grown ingredients of the Indonesian archipelago.
LEARN
At Javara Culture, we offer a space that enables cross-learning about Indonesia’s heritage food culture, food ingredients, and how to enjoy them. Javara Culture regularly runs ExploRasa, a thematic food tasting workshop, cooking demos, and narrated dinner.
OUR IMPACT
Social Impact
Social impact is designed accordingly to the need and challenges faced by the food producer community. There is no one-fits-all design, as each community/food producer may have different priorities. Our social impact can be in the form of :
- Creating rural business opportunities and employment, helping to achieve reverse urbanization among youth and women.
- Safer working condition.
- Improving skill and capacity that will increase marketability and profitability of produces/products.
- Reviving knowledge among local communities on forgotten, yet nutritious wild edibles and helping to improve family nutrition among food producers that are partnering or receiving knowledge transfer.
PARTICIPATION ON SYSTEMIC CHANGE
Javara believes that food biodiversity is the legacy of our future food. We also believe that to sustain such a legacy, there is a need for a food ecosystem where :
- Smallholder farmers and indigenous communities are appreciated as the guardians as well as the beneficiaries of the food biodiversity.
- Smallholder farmers and indigenous food producers as the guardians and producers of such food biodiversity heritage.
- Responsible consumers seeking healthy nutritious food that is ethically and sustainably sourced become the trendsetter for the mainstream market.
In doing so, Javara works endlessly both at the local and global level to participate in making the systemic change happens.
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
Darwin Cyril Noerhadi is an expert in corporate finance and investment who has been at the helm of 5 different companies including Former President Directors of PT Bursa Efek Jakarta and PT Kliring Deposit Efek Indonesia, Chairman of PT Mandiri Sekuritas, Finance Director of PT Medco Energi Internasional Tbk, and Partner in corporate finance at PricewaterhouseCoopers Indonesia. He is currently a Member of Indonesia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund’s Supervisory Board and Commissioner and Management Advisor of various reputable corporations including PT Creador and PT Austindo Nusantara Jaya.
Helianti Hilman has over 26 years of experience as a creative-based entrepreneur, intellectual property lawyer, as well as multidisciplinary and cross-country consultant for rural development. Being inspired by Indonesia’s wealth on food biodiversity, indigenous wisdom, and spiritualism as well as driven by her passion for cooking, traveling, gardening, and creating social impact, in 2008, Ms. Hilman left her work as a consultant and founded PT Kampung Kearifan Indonesia, known also as JAVARA. In addition to her role as Executive Chairperson, she continues serving as the Chief Creative and Community Officer. As a result of her work, Helianti has received numerous prestigious awards, including EY Indonesia’s Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2013; Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur 2015; Forbes Indonesia 2014 The Inspiring Women Honor Roll and Top 10 Asia 2016 Indonesia’s top social enterprise. At Javara, she is responsible for strategic alliance development and communication.
Heveati Hilman has over 30 years of experience in Management, Business Planning & Analysis. Prior to joining PT Kampung Kearifan Indonesia, she served as the Director of Jakarta Institute of Finance for over 16 years, providing consultancy and giving lectures in the areas of management, business ethics & service excellence. Her knowledge and experience in business planning & analysis, combined with her prudence enable her to share the required insights for Javara's current and future endeavors. Heveati completed her MBA at Monash University, Australia and her bachelor degree in Marketing Management at Virginia Tech, U.S.A.
Irtamazati Husna completed her undergraduate degree in 1989 at the Faculty of Forestry, Gadjah Mada University. She also graduated from the Wijawiyata Program of PPM School of Management in 1992. She spent 23 years of service at PT Sumalindo Lestari Jaya Tbk, a publicly listed company in wood-based industry, member of Astra Group. She started her career in various divisions, which include timber plantations, pulp project, mdf project, investor relations and marketing and sales between 1989-2012 before resigning from her last position as the Deputy Corporate Secretary. In 2012-2013 she worked voluntarily for Javara and served as the Marketing & Sales Director in 2014-2018 and Director of Partnership in 2018-2019.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Erwin Z. Achir has over 35 years of experience in Information Technology, Sales, and Business Management. Prior to joining PT Kampung Kearifan Indonesia, he served as the President Director of PT TDATA Indonesia, a full subsidiary of Teradata Corporation which is based in the U.S. Erwin had also taken up top management sales position at Hewlett Packard Indonesia & SEA, Director of Enterprise Sales Compaq Computer Indonesia, and several key management positions at Astra Graphia IT. He is responsible for overall business management & transformation at PT Kampung Kearifan Indonesia (Javara).
Helianti Hilman has over 26 years of experience as a creative-based entrepreneur, intellectual property lawyer, as well as multidisciplinary and cross-country consultant for rural development. Being inspired by Indonesia’s wealth on food biodiversity, indigenous wisdom, and spiritualism as well as driven by her passion for cooking, traveling, gardening, and creating social impact, in 2008, Ms. Hilman left her work as a consultant and founded PT Kampung Kearifan Indonesia, known also as JAVARA. In addition to her role as Executive Chairperson, she continues serving as the Chief Creative and Community Officer. As a result of her work, Helianti has received numerous prestigious awards, including EY Indonesia’s Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2013; Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur 2015; Forbes Indonesia 2014 The Inspiring Women Honor Roll and Top 10 Asia 2016 Indonesia’s top social enterprise. At Javara, she is responsible for strategic alliance development and communication.
Prior to joining Javara in 2018, Ms. Suhita has more than 25 years experience with multinational companies in both consumer and industrial markets including Unilever, Mead Johnson, Indofood, and Holcim Indonesia. Her expertise includes business development, strategic alliance development, start-ups, internal resources, and systems enhancements for new market entry and market development. At Javara, she is responsible for innovation, overlook business potential, central marketing, and sales growth.
Mrs.Yerti has more than 25 years of experience in Finance, Accounting, and Internal Audit. Prior to joining Javara, she served as the Corporate Branch Head of Olympic Group across Java and Sumatra. She began her career in sales and data marketing at PT Eurindo Combined. At Javara, she is responsible for the Finance & Accounting Department, as well as Procurement and Supply Change Management. Her perseverance and integrity are certainly valuable as the company embarks in the business transformation process.
