Overview
Ouassari has said he stopped school at 13 and discovered computing by chance at 20. In 2018 he sat as an expert on the Horizon 2020 NMBP Advisory Group for the European Commission's DG Research and Innovation. He and Julie Foulon collected the Samsung Global Citizenship Award for MolenGeek in Seoul in November 2017. The non-profit be.brusseleir named him 'Brusseleir van't joer' on 18 November 2021, and on 20 July 2023 he was among the people granted honours by the King.
Ibrahim Ouassari is the founder of MolenGeek, a non-profit based in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, Brussels, that combines digital training courses, a coworking incubator and tech events. MolenGeek began in May 2015 with a Startup Weekend in the municipality, an initiative launched by Marina Aubert, Geoffroy Verney-Carron, Morad Chaboun and Ouassari. Ouassari and Julie Foulon set up the incubator in 2016, and the organisation took ASBL status in June 2016. La Coding School, a free six-month coding programme run with Google, Samsung, ULB and Bruxelles Formation, opened on 1 March 2017. King Philippe visited the site on 30 May 2017, Emmanuel Macron joined a round table with MolenGeek in November 2018, and Google chief executive Sundar Pichai came on 20 January 2020 with a second cheque of 200,000 euros after a first one in June 2018. The model was exported to Padua, Amsterdam, Antwerp and Charleroi. MolenGeek now lists campuses in Brussels, Antwerp, Charleroi and Roubaix, with training in web development, digital marketing and artificial intelligence. In 2025 several partners ended their collaboration. Bruxelles Formation cancelled two conventions in March over the quality of the training, Google ended its relationship, and Actiris decided in October to stop funding from 2026 after paying close to 2.5 million euros between 2018 and 2024. In November 2025 the Brussels prosecutor's office opened a judicial inquiry into suspected subsidy infractions, and Ouassari said everything is done correctly, documented and audited.
Career history
In the news
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