Our Team | ENVI Lodges

Who We Are

ENVI Lodges is managed by a team of professionals with decades of experience in hospitality and tourism, specialized in luxury, boutique, and outdoor hospitality. We have worked for ultra-luxury brands, managed some of the world’s most famous boutique resorts, lodges and tented camp, gained invaluable experience with management companies that pioneered the concept of sustainable hotels, and won multiple awards for both personal and professional achievements.

Bringing together passionate hoteliers and travel and tourism experts who share a love for discovery, responsible tourism and luxury hospitality, our team is as diverse as it is united in its values.

Although our head office is located in Dubai, many of our team members work remotely from the place(s) they call home, and they are in France, Greece, Germany, Spain, South Africa, Lebanon, and the United States.

Co-Founder

Chris Nader

Chris was born into a family of hoteliers and he started working at the family-owned Yacht Club very young. While learning the trade hands on, he developed his life-time passion for extreme sports. But it wasn't until his early twenties that Chris experienced the synergy between travel and adventure, embarking on a three-day expedition kayaking with whales in Canada. That immersive experience only reinforced him to push his career in hospitality and after an MBA at the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne in 2008, Chris joined the team that launched Shaza Hotels in Geneva. He eventually moved to Dubai to lead the company’s international growth. From 2014 to 2017, he was also the Vice-President of Development for Kempinski Hotels covering Africa and the Middle East.

It was while living in Switzerland that Chris discovered the world of experiential lodging at an eco-luxury camp in the Swiss Alps. 10 years later, he finds himself launching a new eco-lodge brand of his own. ENVI Lodges combines his love for adventure, his passion to create meaningful experiences, and his ambition to promote responsible hospitality.

Co-Founder

Noelle Homsy

Imagining she would one day design her own little hotel and retire on a Greek Island, Noelle studied architecture and ended up building an unconventional career. Starting with architectural design and construction project management, she later handled claims, risk management and arbitration cases for real estate projects in the Middle East. A born multitasker, she also earned a Masters in Engineering Management from the American University of Beirut and a certificate in Negotiation and Dispute Resolution from Harvard University --all the while, Noelle was still looking for a way into the hotel world.

In 2017, Noelle moved to Singapore for her MBA, and travelled all around South East Asia, visiting multiple eco-luxury camps in the region. After graduating from INSEAD, Noelle jumped at the opportunity to enter the hospitality industry, taking on a role in luxury hotel development with a focus on experiential lodging. During that time, she successfully signed 4 lodges in the UAE and moved on to lead the hospitality and tourism practice at Grant Thornton UAE. Her passion for watching hotels come to life combined with her love for responsible tourism finally led her to launch ENVI Lodges.

Operations

Paul Jordaan

Paul grew up in the beautiful winelands of Stellenbosch in South Africa, on a family wine estate where his father taught him to listen to the earth and how to protect it. After a training in winemaking in France, Paul moved to London to work at the Ritz before returning to South Africa to pursue his studies in hospitality.

During this time, he developed a passion for wildlife conservation and a taste for adventure and extreme sports, which led him to experience the best surfing destinations around the globe --a passion that most certainly influenced his career choices, and grew his interest for luxury experiential eco-lodges that promote sustainable tourism. He managed a 5-star lodge in South Africa, then opened Richard Branson’s award-winning boutique hotel Mont Rochelle. In 2007, he took on the role of General Manager of Point Grace in Turks & Caicos Islands, a luxury property owned by Aman Resorts’ founder Adrian Zecha. He then moved back to Africa to open a lodge in Zanzibar under the Elewana brand, and in 2011 he accepted his former boss’ offer to become the multi-property general manager of several Aman resorts in India, Sri-Lanka and Bhutan. But that's not all. Paul eventually operated Six Senses resorts in Vietnam and Oman’s Zighy Bay and more recently, general manager of The Slate in Thailand, a Bill Bensley designed resort and member of Design Hotels. Finally, Paul was the Director of Operation of multiple lodges and estates in New Zealand and Thailand.