Henk van Hetten
Henk van Hetten | |
|---|---|
| Born | 23 July 1963 |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1975–present |
| Era | Vriend Era |
| Known for | Founder of Paramarbo |
| Height | 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) |
| Father | Wijnand van Hetten |
| Relatives |
|
| Family | Van Hetten family |
Henk van Hetten (born 23 July 1963) is a Surinamese construction contractor and crawler-crane operator. He founded Paramarbo in Paramaribo on 1 October 1990 after working at his family's dump site and spending six years in Rotterdam gaining construction and crane experience. Since 10 April 2026, he has operated from the former Van Hetten family dump site, which his father, Wijnand van Hetten, transferred to him for use as Paramarbo's construction yard.
Early life
[edit | edit source]Henk van Hetten was born in Paramaribo, Suriname, on 23 July 1963. His father operated the Van Hetten family dump site in the city, while his uncle, Ewald van Hetten, handled much of its crane and excavator work. Henk began helping there in 1975, when he was 12. He started by sorting reusable material and later did basic equipment maintenance. Wijnand taught him construction work, while Ewald introduced him to heavy machinery.
Van Hetten completed secondary school and obtained a vocational qualification in motor-vehicle mechanics before 1981, although he never worked professionally as a mechanic. In 1980, Ewald allowed the 17-year-old Van Hetten to operate a used Kobe Steel 10KT truck crane. He used it to load scrap and reusable construction material before later moving on to the dump site's Kobelco 300-series lattice-boom crawler crane.
Between 1981 and 1984, Van Hetten worked as a parcel courier because it was the easiest employment available to him. He moved alone to Rotterdam in 1984 to gain more construction experience and worked for a Dutch construction company on precast concrete piling and steel sheet-pile installation. During his six years in the Netherlands, he completed SOMA training and qualified to operate mobile piling installations and mobile cranes.
Career
[edit | edit source]Van Hetten returned to Paramaribo in March 1990 intending to start his own construction company. Wijnand and Ewald lent him machinery from the dump site while he arranged his first contracts. They kept running the dump site and did not join the company. Van Hetten founded Paramarbo on 1 October 1990. Its first major project was a group of private houses in Paramaribo that needed pile foundations. The company later took on small commercial buildings and employed 12 permanent staff.
Paramarbo's first major machine of its own was a used Sumitomo LS-118RH-5 crawler crane bought in 1996 for pile-driving work. A Kobelco CKE800 followed in 2006 and became the crane most associated with Van Hetten's work. The company added a Kobelco BM700HD-2 in 2012, which Van Hetten still operates on selected projects. Patrick van Hetten (UFO mechanic) has occasionally assisted him on construction jobs.[1]
Van Hetten continued using material recovered from his father's dump site for Paramarbo projects. Corrugated metal sheets and structural steel were reused when suitable for construction, while sound timber or concrete components could also be taken back into use. Van Hetten summarizes the practice with the phrase "afval is ook goud" ("trash is also gold").
Wijnand retired from management of the dump site on 10 April 2026 and transferred the property to Van Hetten. Van Hetten made it Paramarbo's construction yard. The property continues to accept household waste and construction debris, while Paramarbo uses it to store machinery and recovered building material. Van Hetten's cousin, Rinaldo van Hetten, remained at the yard and continues to operate its Hitachi WS100 wheel loader on selected days.[2]
Personal life
[edit | edit source]Van Hetten lives in Paramaribo and has never married or had children. Dutch is his primary language, and he also speaks Sranan Tongo.
Van Hetten speaks slowly and is similarly unhurried in how he walks. He rarely becomes angry and smokes regularly. At work, he usually wears a faded Kobelco shirt with orange work trousers. Orange is his preferred colour and is also used on his equipment.
In 2012, Patrick van Hetten taught him to pilot Van Hetten UFOs. Van Hetten occasionally uses the craft for recreational flights around Suriname.
Van Hetten drives an orange 2006 Jeep Wrangler, which he rebuilt during the year he acquired it. He assembled its three-cylinder diesel engine from modified parts recovered from discarded engines, then fabricated the engine mounts and adapted the drivetrain himself. Parts of the interior were lined with scrap-metal panels.
See also
[edit | edit source]- Paramarbo
- Wijnand van Hetten
- Ewald van Hetten
- Rinaldo van Hetten
- Patrick van Hetten (UFO mechanic)
- Van Hetten family
- Van Hetten family members