Stijn Vandervorst succeeds Anouk Lagae as CEO of Accent

Roeselare, January 18, 2024 - Starting from March 1, 2024, Stijn Vandervorst will assume the role of CEO at the talent placement company Accent. He takes over from Anouk Lagae, who held the position since October 2020. Stijn Vandervorst, with a career spanning prominent companies such as Unilever, McKinsey, Danone, and Adidas, is returning to Belgium after an international career to further support Accent in their journey towards digital transformation and continued growth. With Stijn Vandervorst, Accent gains a CEO with immense enthusiasm for innovation, digitalization, and an approach that serves both customers and candidates.

Professional Dreams Realize

Anouk Lagae began as CEO of Accent in October 2020. In her 3.5 years at the helm of the talent placement company, Anouk successfully strengthened Accent's presence and achieved growth. Additionally, she fulfilled the three major dreams formulated with her team.

Her first dream was to become the best employer in Belgium, creating a "Greatest Place to Work" for all employees. This laid the groundwork for her second dream: advancing diversity and inclusion. Under Anouk Lagae's leadership, Accent worked diligently on pioneering open-minded hiring and a more inclusive internal recruitment flow, earning them a Trends Impact Award for D&I. The third dream was a digital transformation for Accent, involving significant strides in developing an online business with offline touchpoints. Accent launched a user-friendly MyAccent app, implemented AI applications in recruitment processes, and introduced Accent Live to prioritize the candidate even more.

"I had the opportunity at Accent to contribute to a unique success story that perfectly combines profit and purpose. Over the past years, the professional Accent dreams we formulated at the start, have come true. I am proud of what we have achieved in 3.5 years. Accent is now ready for its next growth phase. For me, the time has come to realize a personal dream, which will unfold in the coming months. I am immensely grateful to the entire Accent team for their tireless dedication, courage, and energy over the years, and I look forward to seeing Accent continue to grow. With Stijn, we have a top talent who can build on this, so I leave the company with peace of mind," says Anouk Lagae.

The Path of Innovation, Digital Transformation, and Customer-Centricity

With Stijn Vandervorst, Accent gains a CEO with great enthusiasm for innovation, digitalization, and a healthy obsession with the customer. He has built broad experience in various roles (including IT, finance, marketing, sales, and general management) across different companies (such as Unilever, McKinsey, Danone, and Adidas) and in multiple countries like Belgium, Tunisia, The Netherlands, Portugal and Japan. This diversity of experiences provides him with the agility needed in this rapidly changing world. His talent for growing businesses and people in challenging conditions equips him with the skills necessary to further assist Accent in its growth.

In January and February, Vandervorst will fully prepare for his role, engaging in the field to assume the position of CEO from March 1. "During my years in Japan, I experienced firsthand the impact of the labor shortage on economic growth, partly caused by strong demographic shifts. In Belgium and Europe, we are facing the same massive challenge, albeit with a few years of delay, and this is already evident. As an innovative and leading company in the talent placement sector, Accent is in pole position to provide solutions that can sustain the growth of our clients and our economy. I look forward to continuing the fantastic journey of Accent with the entire team," says Stijn Vandervorst.

End of press release.

About Accent

Accent is a talent placement company with the largest specialized office network in Belgium. With more than 300 offices and +1200 employees, Accent employs over 44,000 people annually. Accent is part of House of HR, a leading service group active in the HR world, consisting of ten companies representing over 40 brands.

Since 1995, Accent has been involved in talent placement by seeking a sustainable match between employees and employers through fixed or temp-to-perm contracts. Accent's mission is to Unsuck Work, based on the belief that work can be fantastic. With this mission, Accent aims to improve the entire job market, providing equal opportunities for everyone to find the job of their dreams. In 2023, Accent introduced open-minded hiring: a new way of recruiting where candidates are presented to employers in an anonymous manner.

Accent has a young, innovative, and dynamic company culture combined with a no-nonsense attitude and an enthusiastic mindset. Accent has been awarded Great Place to Work® in Belgium 18 times. More information at www.accentjobs.be.