Career & background
Before establishing a food business, Hilman worked in law and rural-development consulting. She studied international law at Padjadjaran University and completed a master’s degree in intellectual property law at King’s College London. Her professional experience included development projects involving international agencies. In 2008 she founded PT Kampung Kearifan Indonesia, the company behind Javara. The move gave her a practical way to work with Indonesian farming communities beyond her earlier advisory roles. Javara’s official leadership information identifies her as its founder and executive chairperson, with responsibilities in business and partnership development.
Areas of contribution
Javara works with farmers, fishers, foragers and food artisans to develop products for Indonesian and overseas customers. Its business connects distinctive local ingredients with sourcing, processing and distribution. Hilman extended her work into entrepreneurial education in 2017 by founding Sekolah Seniman Pangan, which supports food-business development among rural youth and women. The Schwab Foundation included her among its 2015 social-entrepreneur awardees. The Australia–Indonesia Centre also identifies her as an alumna of its Australia–Indonesia Leaders Program, placing her work within a wider network of regional exchange.
Leadership focus
The connection between a producer and a buyer is central to Hilman’s work. In WIPO’s account of Javara, branding, traceability and producer training form part of the business model. Identifying where an ingredient comes from helps distinguish its value; building a route to market gives that distinction a commercial purpose. Her career brings legal knowledge, enterprise development and food heritage into the same field of work, with rural producers participating in the business rather than remaining distant from its customers.
The basis of this profile.
This profile brings together factual career information from publicly available sources. References and publication dates are provided below.
Javara — Board and founder biographyAccessed 9 Nov 2026 · Read the original publicationJavara — Our JourneyAccessed 9 Nov 2026 · Read the original publicationAustralia–Indonesia Centre — Helianti HilmanAccessed 9 Nov 2026 · Read the original publicationWorld Economic Forum — Schwab Foundation 2015 awardees30 Mar 2015 · Read the original publicationWIPO — IP as a Tool to Move Beyond Subsistence Farming28 Feb 2017 · Read the original publicationPortrait — WIPO / Jean-François Arrou-Vignod9 Jun 2016 · Read the original publicationPortrait licence — CC BY-SA 3.0 IGOAccessed 9 Nov 2026 · Read the original publicationIndependently written and fact-checked on 9 November 2026. Dates marked ‘Accessed’ refer to undated webpages; dated publications retain their publication dates. Javara and the Australia–Indonesia Centre support the role and career details; WEF confirms the 2015 recognition. WIPO’s 2017 case study supplies historical business-model context, not current operating figures. Portrait: ‘Helianti Hilman, Founder and CEO of JAVARA’ (9 June 2016), © WIPO, photograph by Jean-François Arrou-Vignod. Reused under CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO; original image retained, with responsive display cropping. That licence applies to the photograph, without implying endorsement.
Professional details reflect the cited publication dates and may change. Third-party materials remain subject to their owners’ rights.
