News

BM Engineering takes the next step towards the future

12.12.25

Jan Leye will step down from his role as partner and COO at BM Engineering at the end of December 2025. As founder, Jan has been the face of the company for over thirty years: first as CEO and, in recent years, as COO. 

This transfer is not a decision that was made overnight; the process began three years ago. At the beginning of 2024, Jan passed on the CEO baton to Steven Beirinckx and two new working partners joined the management team. 

The company would like to sincerely thank Jan for his vision, leadership, and lasting impact. Under his leadership, the former Studiebureau Boucherie evolved from a family-run firm specializing in stability to today's BM Engineering: a multidisciplinary engineering firm with 80 employees, active in industry, office & commercial, residential, harbor & marine, care & education, and civil works. Thanks to our stability, engineering, civil, and industrial MEP departments, we have become an integrated total partner that can offer a truly all-in approach. And we do so with six partners who are actively involved on a daily basis, which guarantees close involvement. With a strong team, broad expertise, and a clear growth path, our ambition to play a leading role as an independent engineering firm in projects of any scale in Flanders and Brussels is stronger than ever. 

Although he is stepping down as a partner, Jan will remain professionally active and available as a consultant. 

On the occasion of his departure, we looked back on Jan's career with him. 

Read the full interview here: 

How did your career in the company start? 

"I graduated in 1984, during a period of major crisis in the construction sector. Nowadays, it's hard to imagine that someone graduating as a civil engineer would be unable to find work. I first joined the army and then worked outside the construction sector. My father-in-law ran Studiebureau Boucherie, which was a very small firm at the time, with one draughtsman and my wife Chantal on the staff. Around 1990-1991, construction started to pick up again and I was asked if I could help out – first part-time and then full-time." 

When did the moment come for you to take over the company? 

"I was already working there as if it were my own. When my father-in-law was around 70, he suggested that I take over the company. At that time, there were four or five employees; after the takeover, we grew to a dozen people. At that point, I no longer thought it was wise for the company to revolve entirely around me. I was inspired by other companies with working partners, so I introduced that model too. Wouter Vandenabeele, who was already working at Studiebureau Boucherie at the time and is still a partner at BM Engineering, was happy with that. Together with external consultants, we worked out the basic agreements. Those still apply to a large extent today." 

Why was that model of working partners so crucial? 

"It was the basis for the evolution towards multidisciplinarity. Until then, we had specialized internally in stability; we outsourced other disciplines. In 2006, Steven Beirinckx joined us to start up the engineering department. He also became a partner. In 2011, we acquired Studiebureau Maes, hence the name BM Engineering. That was a game changer. Not only because we grew from 16 to 24 people, but also because the market sensed our ambitions. With the takeover, Steven Vanpoucke joined us. He was a partner at Maes and would now head up the civil engineering department. Because we wanted to give young people opportunities, new partners have joined us in recent years: Stijn, Hanne, and Alexander." 

What other milestones were there for the company? 

"The move from Roeselare to Kortrijk in 2017 was an important step: on the one hand for visibility to customers, but also for our image to employees. Two more acquisitions followed: in 2017 we acquired Stranger and in 2023 Tecon, which immediately led to geographical expansion to Antwerp. “ 

How do you view the company's strong growth? 

”We have always opted for robust growth, with a certain continuity and stability. That has shaped the company's DNA. I have been the face of BM for a long time, but in recent years I have deliberately become less operationally active and have worked more behind the scenes. This was made possible by the partnership model, which allowed us to realize our ambition as an independent engineering firm and to further professionalize in many areas. This has further strengthened the company's position." 

How do you feel when you look back on your career? 

"I look back with great pride. I have derived enormous satisfaction from all the projects I used to do myself and that we have carried out with the firm. But above all, it gave me satisfaction to see employees grow and flourish, both professionally and in their approach to life. Developing the talents of our people to the maximum is what we set out as our mission a few years ago. Combined with the camaraderie in the company... I'm going to miss that."