Jan obtained the M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium in 1985. After graduating, he worked as a research assistant at the Inter-university Micro-Electronics Center (IMEC) in Leuven, Belgium, from 1985 to 1988, and at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, from 1988 to 1990. From 1990 to 1991, he worked at Alcatel Bell in Antwerp, Belgium as a design engineer of broadband telecommunications ASICs. In 1992, he co-founded Easics, a hardware design services company, being one of its first two staff members. Over the years, Easics has grown steadily and in May 2000, it was acquired by TranSwitch, a supplier of VLSI solutions to the communications equipment industry. Responsibilities at Easics included design methodology and in-house tool development. In November 2002, Jan Decaluwe left Easics to become an independent developer and consultant.