Childhood of Dirk Currie

“It’s going great!” is always the answer you can expect when you ask the son of the now 96-year-old Hetty Currie-Henar and the late Richard Louis Currie how he is doing. ‘I always express how I wish to feel’. Dirk was born on October 26, 1958, and is the youngest of a family of 5. He has 4 brothers and 1 sister. He spent his childhood and youth at the Lousielaan in Combe (Suriname). The Family man and proud father of Giano and Tirzah Currie is a Lifelong learner, he is addicted to reading, loves nature, and also likes to do challenging things. Dirk has played a lot of sports in his life; he has practiced the following branches of sports: swimming, volleyball, and judo. The pillars of his life are faith and spirituality. The connection between the two is that where the “why questions” cannot be answered when we need to hold onto our faith and spirituality contributes to how to deal with impactful events in life.

For Dirk, the three most important core values in life are Freedom, Respect, and Justice. By continuing to study and creating opportunities to be broadly employable, Dirk has fulfilled the core value of freedom. He has respect for every person and nature. He also absolutely cannot stand injustice.

Dirk does not come from a rich family and did not receive pocket money, but always wanted to create his freedom. That’s why, as an 11-year-old boy, he started working at a local food shop by peeling potatoes. He worked there every Friday afternoon and evening, every Saturday, and every holiday for about 6 years. Naturally, he also experienced growth opportunities there and worked in various departments such as warehouse, server, behind the cash register, and administration. In the event of the director’s absence, Dirk was responsible for closing the shop and ensuring the safe storage of the money in the safe. As a result, Dirk has learned to work, earn his own money, and learn the value of money. What it is like to earn money yourself and the heavy consideration of when to spend it.

By working and earning his own money, he was able to buy his first moped, which unfortunately he was only able to ride once because it was stolen. Luckily he can laugh about it now. But he certainly learned lessons from it.

At the age of 17,  Dirk obtained his swimming instructor diploma, after which he and his brother provided swimming lessons at Swimming School Currie. Driven by the core value of freedom, Dirk started living independently. As a student of Doctoral Business Economics, Dirk, together with several others, had the opportunity to work at the Ministry of Finance, where a lecturer was in charge at the time. In January 1981 he joined the Ministry of Finance in the Economic Affairs department, where he worked for 6 years. In his senior year, he was in charge. In the last year, he was offered an opportunity to work at Telesur.

His Impact

After serving approximately 6 years at the Ministry of Finance, and overcoming challenges to work at the World Bank, Dirk, as an ambitious young gentleman, joined Telesur on January 1, 1987 as head of the Internal Control department. In that company, Dirk experienced numerous highlights and has been responsible for the tremendous growth of the Telecommunication Company of Suriname. He has also held various positions including coordinator directorate financial and economic affairs and appointed deputy director responsible for financial and economic affairs for 15 years. The urge to grow has always remained intending to be able to exert its influence among a large group of people. In 2005 he was appointed Acting Director and then formally Director of Telesur in May 2006. This lasted until 2015. The final process at Telesur did not go as he had wished, still, Dirk is thankful for the immense growth he led the company through over the years. While Dirk worked at Telesur, he also contributed to other companies as a supervisory director. He received full support from the organizations because of the trust they have in him.

In addition to professional work, Dirk is also affiliated with various organizations where he contributes in his way to the development of people’s well-being. For example, he is a member of the Association of Economists in Suriname (VES), a former board member of Lobi Foundation, and a board member of Lotjes huis, and, and Wi Tru Sranan, which was founded in 2021 to raise awareness of the values and standards of organizations. In 2021, he served as Treasurer at the Center for Democracy and Legal Education, where he took over as chairman in February 2023.

Growth through experience

Growth comes with its challenges. As previously indicated, Dirk’s journey at Telesur did not end as he wished. He has also learned to deal with those setbacks. Despite the many pieces of advice to go public and share in detail what the issue was, Dirk chose to remain calm and not defend the negative statements that were made about him in the news.. He chose to file a lawsuit. “In such a process you learn to know what patience is,” says Dirk. After 5 years, justice has prevailed. In August 2020, the judge ruled in favor of Dirk Currie. Compensation does not right the wrong. With spirituality as his instrument, these learning moments have taught him to deal with pain without losing enthusiasm.

The contract with Telesur formally ended on June 30, 2016. On July 1, 2016, Dirk launched his own consultancy company Your Leadership Toolbox Consultancy (YLT Consultancy). As of April 1, 2017, he was appointed as one of the two directors at Fernandes. He was there as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Fernandes Holding, on the condition that his company would not be shut down and that he would not accept commercial assignments. In June 2020, the still-ambitious Dirk submitted his letter of resignation and restarted the commercial activities of YLT Consultancy in September 2020.

At Your Leadership Toolbox Consultancy (YLT Consultancy), Dirk brings a transformative approach to leadership in companies and organizations. He focuses on leadership and management. He is a big believer in leading with Emotional Intelligence. For people to perform optimally, it is important to be knowledgeable and skilled in emotional intelligence.

The death of his father has taught Dirk that no matter how rational you are as a person, you are human first. And people have emotions. Upon returning from a business trip, he received the news as he got off the plane that his father had died. when calling his mother from the car on his way from the airport, he burst into tears and said that men can cry too. And it is important to know that emotions are part of the process of processing impactful events.

Closing Remarks from Dirk

Respect is a very important tool in dealing with people, regardless of the situation. Do everything you do with respect. Also in management. Values have no hierarchy, everyone must adhere to the corporate values.

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