Steven Coutinho

CEO - Author - Speaker - New York Times: the Philosopher Banker - Escapee from Plato’s Cave

Netherlands

About

What happens when you discover that all you’ve been told - about who you are and what you need to be - has been a lie? That all the labels are nothing but illusions keeping us blinded from the truth? That’s when you try and find a way to escape Plato’s Cave and climb towards the light. I’m still climbing…

Experience

  • Fellow at Sentience and Science Foundation
    Jan 2026 - Present · 6 mos

    Answering the hard problem of consciousness…

  • Co-Champion at MIT Professional Education
    Apr 2024 - Present · 2 yrs 3 mos

    Co-leading Suriname's MIT REAP program presents an opportunity for our country to address its challenges and realize its visionary future. MIT REAP Team Suriname’s goal is to advance the agricultural sector, increasing food exports and ensuring the success of the offshore oil industry through building a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem–aiming not only to transform Suriname but also to positively impact the entire region, ultimately creating a path to prosperity, sustainability, and economic growth.

  • Public Speaker at deSpreker.nl
    Jun 2019 - Present · 7 yrs 1 mo

    Stop looking up. You were never down. Yet there is one story that has programmed so many of us: “we’re not good enough and we need to live in the image of someone else. Whiter, richer, smarter... higher”. My passion is to wake people up from these illusions that imprison our minds and drive our self-esteem. To discover who we really are: potential moment for moment.

  • Chairman of the Board at Surinaamse Bankiersvereniging
    Jun 2021 - Dec 2021 · 7 mos

  • Chief Executive Officer at De Surinaamsche Bank
    Aug 2019 - Dec 2021 · 2 yrs 5 mos