CEO MONTHLY / NOVEMBER 2026 9 Empowering Suriname and the wider Caribbean with secure, sustainable, and sovereign digital infrastructure, Datasur exists to enable innovation, drive economic growth, and ensure that data sovereignty remains within the region. It offers the first certified commercial datacentre and is a key cloud infrastructure provider in the Caribbean. Since 2014, Datasur has stood as a trusted partner for clients navigating the rapidly evolving digital landscape, and has played a huge part in driving digital transform in Suriname and the Caribbean. For the last 12 years, Datasur has been combining local trust with international standards, providing mission-critical datacentre, cloud, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and digital infrastructure from its base, supported by ISO 27001 and ISO 22301 management systems and its thinking increasingly from a Caribbean perspective. This feeds into what the team here believe digital sovereignty means, which is not isolation from the world, but rather knowing where data is, who can access it, and under which jurisdiction it operates. By thinking global, acting regional, and serving local, Datasur creates maximum value for its customers, with its blend of a fully equipped datacentre, customised consultancy services, hosting/website services, managed services, and domains being grounded in its values of innovation, integrity, customer focus, sustainability, and partnerships. These principles shape how the team make decisions, treat their customers, and build for the longer term. It is as a result of this combination that Datasur today sits at the heart of Suriname and the Caribbean’s digital ecosystem, with e-Government services, private companies, SMEs, and over 85% of the Suriname’s bankers and insurers being hosted by the company. Beyond its infrastructure, Datasur also has a team of innovators at its disposal, seen through it being a founding member of the Caribbean Datacenter Association along with Blue Nap Americas, as well as its work advocating for and enabling regional sovereign cloud adoption. Datasur’s team is spearheaded by Dr Anvit Ramlakhan, who, as its CEO, is responsible for providing strategic direction, inspiring innovation, and ensuring every decision contributes to both corporate excellence and national progress. Anvit also oversees the company’s financial, operational, and technological performance, all whilst fostering a culture of integrity, collaboration, and accountability within its team. He also builds the right team for the direction he sets, creating an environment where its people can grow and thrive. Anvit is guided by a personal philosophy that has remained unchanged for many years: continuous progressive successful excellence. Exploring what exactly this means, Anvit told us: “It reminds me that excellence is never a destination. There is always something we can improve in ourselves, our people, our processes, or the value we create.” To this end, Anvit regularly asks himself two simple questions to make sure that Datasur continues to move in the right direction as it evolves: “Are we leaving this organisation stronger than we found it? Are the company, its people, and our stakeholders really growing?” The answer to both has consistently been yes, and this comes down to the way Anvit leads the company. His successful leadership stems from a wealth of professional experience across this space, which began when he started his career as an engineer at Telesur, Suriname’s national telecoms operator. Technology was obviously the foundation of this role, but Anvit quickly found himself captivated by the way in which technology connects with people, processes, businesses, and strategy. This continues to interest him today. As part of Telesur, Anvit would go on to manage strategic projects, later leading a team responsible for services used by hundreds of thousands of people across the nation, and even became one of the youngest managers in the entire organisation. Anvit’s trajectory was noticed by Datasur, which approached him with the opportunity of leading what was then a small organisation in 2019. Anvit humbly accepted, and has since worked alongside its team to transform it from a datacentrefocused company into a trusted ICT partner. “Under my leadership, Datasur has achieved 300% growth in customer base, 300% capacity expansion, and 200% revenue growth, transforming from a local datacentre into a regional digital transformation powerhouse.” His time at Datasur has played a huge part in developing Anvit into the leader he is today, but his evolution has not only happened within the organisation. From chairing the ICT Association of Suriname and VSB Young Management, as well as the CANTO Trends & Technology Committee, to helping found the Caribbean Datacenter Association, advise on e-Government development, and serving on the Supervisory Board of Self Reliance N.V., Anvit has done it all, and often whilst being the youngest person in the room. Anvit’s education has been an equally important part of his journey, and he is especially proud of his PhD in information management (magna cum laude), MSc in information technology (merit), and MBA in strategic management and leadership (cum laude). Whilst these academic foundations were crucial parts of his journey, his career taught him that real education begins when academic knowledge meets real-life responsibility. This brings us back to Anvit’s approach to leadership, which builds off everything discussed above to create a style that favours transformational and situational leadership. After all, everybody is different, and one of the worst things a leader can do is to try and force a one-size-fits-all attitude on people who all learn and succeed in different ways. Instead, for Anvit, the consistency comes from the standards employed across the company. He explained: “Leadership is ultimately service. You cannot sustainably develop organisations without developing people. I therefore measure leadership not only by what my team achieves, but also by who they become while achieving it.” On the back of this, Datasur has experienced significant growth defined by its people growing towards each other, rather than away from each other. This can be attributed to the aforementioned focus on culture Anvit has, and his active involvement in developing it. Datasur also helps close skills gaps by connecting the industry with education, through the likes of internships.” With Datasur soon moving into its 2027– 2030 strategic cycle, it is entering another important phase of its development. It aims to strengthen its role in supporting Suriname’s emerging oil and gas economy with resilient in-country digital infrastructure, all whilst continuing with its transformation from an important ICT company into a full digital infrastructure platform for the Caribbean. As it makes this shift, it remains committed to expanding its team with local talent, nurturing trusted partnerships, and fostering responsible growth. Anvit himself is increasingly focused on scaling impact, connecting the different worlds he works in to develop people and create value that will outlast him. The meaningful changes he is looking to enact in this space have led to a growing philosophy based around corporate spirituality. Anvit commented: “Corporate spirituality is not about introducing religion into the workplace. It is about integrating purpose, self-awareness, discipline, compassion, ethical responsibility, and service into how we lead and create value.” Three of its principles in particular resonate with Anvit: purpose before position, integrity as inner governance, and service as the highest form of success. Guided by these, his unchanged personal philosophy, and the recognition that we all have limited time, but potentially unlimited opportunities to create lasting impact, Anvit is a leader more than fitting of being recognised here in the Most Influential CEO Awards 2026. Having also won last year, this award is a fitting reflection of the constant evolution of this industryleading CEO. “Technology changes. Positions change. Organisations change. But the knowledge you transfer and the people you help develop can continue creating value long after your own role has ended.” More on Datasur can be found by visiting the company at the web address below. Contact: Dr Anvit Ramlakhan Company: Datasur Web Address: https://datasur.sr/
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTUyMDQwMA==