CEO MONTHLY / DECEMBER 2025 17 Anvit Ramlakhan: Powering Regional Growth through Digital Empowerment Since its inception in 2014, Datasur has been on a mission to empower the Caribbean with secure, sustainable, and sovereign digital infrastructure, enabling innovation, driving economic growth, and ensuring that data sovereignty remains within the region. The company stands as the beating heart of Suriname’s and the Caribbean’s digital ecosystems, responsible for hosting eGovernment services, the financial sector, private sector companies and SMEs. The company is steered by CEO Dr. Anvit Ramlakhan, an experienced leader with a demonstrated history of success in the telecommunications and cloud industry. Anvit’s journey began as a young engineer at Telesur – Suriname’s national telecom operator – and parent company of Datasur, where he grew to become the company’s youngest manager, overseeing service provisioning for hundreds of thousands of customers. In 2019, Anvit transitioned to Datasur, where he now serves as the youngest CEO in the company’s history. In this role, he provides strategic direction, inspires innovation, and ensures that every decision contributes to both corporate excellence and national progress. Over the years, Anvit’s leadership style has evolved from technical management to transformational leadership, defining success through purpose, collaboration, and emotional intelligence. “The modern CEO must balance empathy with execution,” he said, “and must remember that leadership’s truest test is not what you build, but who you uplift and change.” Anvit draws inspiration from Eastern philosophy and volunteerism, having served over 25 years in HSS – a international characterbuilding youth organisation that instils self-discipline, service, and teamwork. Here, he learned that great leaders do not command but connect and serve. With this belief, Anvit invests heavily in mentorship and cultivating leadership at every level, ensuring that the next generation of leaders inherit not only success, but strong values. He sees people as partners in progress, each empowered to innovate and take ownership. “I personally champion programmes for leadership development, cross-functional collaboration, and innovation sprints. Our culture is enriched by youth engagement and education; we host internships, workshops, and mentorship programmes that align industry with academia.” As Lector and tutor at four universities – including the PTC University of Applied Sciences, where he is the first and youngest Surinamese ever inaugurated as Lector – Anvit brings academic rigour into the workplace and inspires lifelong learning to the next generation of leaders in Suriname. The results speak for themselves: Datasur has transformed from a local datacentre into a regional digital transformation powerhouse, achieving 300% growth in customer base, 300% capacity expansion, and 200% revenue growth in just three years. From pioneering Suriname’s first hybrid cloud environment to leading the roadmap of innovation, Anvit’s leadership has positioned Datasur as a national strategic asset and one of the Caribbean’s best ICT and Datacentre Services providers. Anvit’s academic achievements also reinforce his leadership foundation. He holds a Ph.D. in Management (Information & Technology) magna cum laude/distinction, an M.Sc. in Information Systems (merit), and an MBA with distinction, supported by a suite of international leadership certifications including HarvardX, LMI, and others. His regional impact extends far beyond Suriname. Anvit serves as the Chairperson of the CANTO Trends & Technology Committee, guiding ICT strategy across 33+ Caribbean nations, and is a Founding Member of the Caribbean Datacenter Association (CDA) in partnership with Blue Nap Americas. He also serves on the Supervisory Board of Self Reliance N.V., one of Suriname’s largest insurance firms, where he champions digital governance and transformation. Looking ahead, Ramlakhan remains driven by an ambitious roadmap for both Datasur and the region. His priorities include expanding Azure Stack Local across Caribbean markets, launching the Caribbean AI Innovation Lab, and advancing ESG and sustainability certifications— reflecting his vision of a digital economy powered by renewable energy, local talent, and ethical innovation. Ultimately, Datasur strives to shape a digitally independent, economically empowered Caribbean driven by technology, education, and collaboration. With the support of such a transformative leader as Anvit Ramlakhan, named the Caribbean’s Most Influential CEO 2025 in Digital Infrastructure and Cloud, the editors at CEO Monthly have no doubt that this mission will continue to grow. On the back of his recent achievements, Anvit reflected: “My life’s work is built on one belief: True leadership is measured not by the power you hold, but by the people you empower.” From the classroom to the boardroom, from datacenters to communities, he strives to integrate technology with humanity to make the Caribbean not just digitally advanced, but digitally human. At Datasur, he is proving that a small nation with a big vision can lead the digital future of a region. Contact: Anvit Ramlakhan Company: Datasur Web Address: www.datasur.sr AIM-Oct25080 Based in Suriname, Datasur is the country’s first certified commercial datacentre and a key cloud infrastructure provider in the Caribbean. For a decade, the company has established itself as a trusted partner to clients navigating the rapidly evolving digital landscape and has been instrumental in driving the region’s digital growth. At its helm is Dr. Anvit Ramlakhan, an accomplished young executive recognised as one of Suriname’s youngest CEOs. We heard more from Anvit below, as he is named in the Most Influential CEO Awards 2025.
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