Who is Jeanluc.sr?
Jean-Luc van Charante MSc. MA.
a loving father, husband, entrepreneur and avid social media user with strong love for Suriname
Born on December 14th, 1984 in Paramaribo, Suriname, he moved to Europe in 2003 to study. He graduated as Master of Science in Leisure Studies and Master of Arts in European Urban Cultures in 2009 after studying in Tilburg, Brussels, Manchester and Helsinki, showing strong interest in Sports, Tourism, Urban Regeneration and Creative Spaces.
Upon his return to Suriname, he got involved in Social Media and Online Marketing, and now has worked in this field as lecturer, trainer, strategist, campaign specialist, manager and creator for over 10 years. He is involved as a part-time Online Marketing and Social Media lecturer at the FHR School of Business, Social Media Professional Lecturer at The Back Lot Academy and Skills Trainer at the Suriname Diplomatic Institute. He is a HootSuite, Coosto and Hubspot Certified Professional and two-time ‘Communication Professional of the Year’ nominee.
As an entrepreneur, he co-founded five start ups in the past 10 years, most notably INEFFABLE NV, a Social Media Agency founded in 2016 that helps organizations communicate with their clients in a relatable way. The company has helped over one hundred organizations and individuals with their Social Media presence and organizes the annual Social Media Conference Suriname, which attracted over 250 participants in 2019 and was successfully continued digitally in 2020.
He is a Global Shapers alumni and a Paul Harris Fellow at the Rotary Club of Paramaribo, where he currently serves as Rotaract Chair and is involved in committees that include education and youth development. As of 2013, he was appointed as the chairman of the Surifesta Foundation, focusing on the support of the Owru Yari celebrations as an tourism product for Suriname. His biggest pride is the Future Leaders and Entrepreneurs Program, a yearly program that provides young talents and professionals between the ages 15 and 24 with Leadership and Entrepreneurship training, which was financed through crowdfunding the first 3 years and is now been made sustainable through the support of its alumni, allowing him to fulfill his life purpose of empowering talent to reach its potential.
A little bit more about me
We often judge a book by its cover. The text above is just a classical bio text. You know, the one that every personal branding website ‘needs to have’. It’s more of a text that people that don’t know me use to introduce me at events and they need to validate me to the audience as a good speaker. So let’s go on to the real me. Here are four sides of me that give you a little bit more insight to my life ;).
I Love Sports, Music and Movies…. and jumping cars
One of the running jokes about my first study, Leisure Studies at Tilburg University, was that I must know how to spend my spare time. And to be honest, I can be an excellent procrastinator. (Un)fortunately, my life changed and as I got older, the fight against time, even though I studied it, keeps getting the best of me. However, sports, music and movies have been a large part of my life, both in times of joy and times of despair.
MY TASTE
- In sports, I mainly like upcoming teams and players, underdogs and occasionally, I do appreciate greatness
- My childhood dreams was to own or run a football club (Football Manager is my favorite game on PC)
- I can listen to any kind of music, as long as it has a good beat/sound, or good lyrics. I do actually prefer good lyrics.
- Yes, I own a DVD collection. I haven’t touched them once since I moved back to Suriname. But I love a good suspense. No horror though.
….. but I do my best to combine both
With my Dad being an Entrepreneur and my Mom being an award winning Visual Artist, I tend to float in between. While I love art, drawing, poetry, writing and creating content in general, I hadn’t committed to consistently creating until 2020. The other way around, while Entrepreneurship has been a big part of my life, a career in the corporate field has never been on the top of my list. In the past 10 years however, I have because adjusted to being in purgatory, and have started viewing it as a strength instead of a weakness. Using my creative skills in business has definitely has had its benefits and so has approaching content creation from an entrepreneurial viewpoint.
I am
neither
an Artist,
nor an
Entrepreneur
I believe
in a
better future
….. because humans are inherently good
In the end, we are all searching for happiness. And even though the perception of what that is may differ, I do believe humans are inherently good. This means that if we can find common ground and can overcome greed and envy by focusing what is really important in life, we can live a much happier and satisfying life. As a child of two parents that both spend years to convince me to make the most of my life, I want to help others do the same. As a society we can best succeed if we make sure the generations that we raise are better equipped to deal with life than we currently are.
When we acquire knowledge, we tend to keep it for ourselves. Especially if it is considered knowledge that is valuable and/or might give us an edge over others. But what if that was just a selfish thought? What if you not sharing that knowledge actually means holding yourself and others back. And what use is it being 60 and finding out your knowledge will be lost. Or taking your knowledge to your grave, will that better the world? Lastly, for those who might think that knowledge could be rubbish, we’ll let the receiver of the knowledge decide ;).