He started his career in the company he founded together with his mother in 1889, which produced photographic paper according to traditional methods.

Already at an early age, he felt socially responsible and wanted to advance the status of Dutch in Belgium.

His personal ideas were strongly influenced by the papal encyclical Rerum novarum (1891) and the writings of Lodewijk De Raet.

His main objectives were the introduction of Dutch as a business language, and the foundation of a sound Dutch-speaking education as a means to establish a Flemish elite.

In 1926, when the Vlaamsch Handelsverbond (Vlaams Economisch Verbond, VEV) was founded, Gevaert was its first chairman.