Jan De Maeseneer graduated as a Medical Doctor in 1977 at Ghent University (Belgium). From 1978-2017, he has been working part-time as a family physician in the community health centre Botermarkt in Ledeberg (www.wgcbotermarkt.be ), a deprived area in the city of Ghent, Belgium. Since 1981, he has been working as a part-time assistant at the Department of Family Medicine and Primary Health Care and from 1991 – 2017, he chaired the department. From 2008 – 2017, he was the vice-dean for strategic planning at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (Ghent University). He has a PhD with strong academic involvement in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, training and research. He has also played a strong role in European social accountability including as Chairman of the Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing in Health (EXPH), advising the European Commission from since 2013. He strongly supported family medicine training in Southern and Eastern Africa especially development of the Primafamed-network (www.primafamed.ugent.be). From 2007 – 2015, Jan De Maeseneer has been the Secretary General of the Network “Towards Unity for Health” (www.thenetworktufh.org).