Belgian-Moroccan Couple Builds €60 Million Recruitment Group Despite Family Prejudice

As a teenager, when Stéphanie Reniers brought up marriage, her father gave her a categorical answer: “Anyone but an Arab.” Years later, she married Farid El Machaoud, a Belgian of Moroccan origin. That family remark now opens her book “Checkbox,” about discrimination in the workplace.

Their story is also one of entrepreneurial success. In 2011, Stéphanie and Farid were working in recruitment. After the young woman was laid off, the two colleagues, who would later marry, decided to start their own company. Gentis was launched in April around a Brussels kitchen table, with no clients and no outside funding.

Fifteen years later, the group has 650 employees of 53 nationalities across eight countries, according to Forbes Belgium. In a L’Écho podcast released on October 16, the executive revealed that Gentis generated €60 million in revenue in 2025.

Companies still reject Arab candidates

That success has not erased the prejudice the couple encounters in their line of work. In her interview published on October 30, Stéphanie Reniers says a construction client asked Gentis not to put forward any Arab candidates for a project.

She also cites the case of Karim, a candidate who was exceptionally well qualified for a strategic role in France. According to her account, a hiring committee chose someone less experienced, fearing that some traditional clients would not accept his profile.

The executive says she long refused to work with companies that made such demands. She now favors dialogue, believing she can do more to change their recruitment practices.

In her 160-page book, published by Mardaga, she puts forward an idea shaped by her experience: diversity must be reflected in companies’ decisions, not just in their rhetoric. She recounts, in particular, the case of a Brussels-based company that spent more than €300,000 on training on the subject, while its own executives did not take part.