In 1988, after he completed his studies in Business Economics at the Erasmus University and worked as Product-Marketing Manager for Royal Philips Electronics, he founded, with his wife Aletta Stas-Bax, the watch company Frédérique Constant.

[3][4] Stas played an outspoken role in a conflict with the Swatch Group after it announced a reduction in its provision of watch component parts to third parties.

[5][6] Stas said the proposed cuts would establish an unfair advantage and stifle competition, and not be good for the Swiss watch industry or consumer choice.

A legal action to request a freeze before the Federal Administrative Court of Switzerland together with eight independent watch and movement companies to block the 2012 cuts was rejected.

[7][8] After a long standoff, Switzerland's Competition Commission (COMCO) finally ruled that it would not allow the Swatch Group to reduce supplies of assortments (i.e. the regulating organ of a mechanical movement: escape wheel, pallet lever, balance wheel and balance spring) that it sells to Swiss watch brands outside the group.