De Geus was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2019 for leadership and technical contributions to logic synthesis for integrated circuits.

He emigrated to the French-speaking part of Switzerland at age 4 in 1958 and then to the German-speaking town of Basel for high school and undergraduate studies where he went to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne.

As a result, de Geus speaks multiple languages, including English, German, Swiss-German, French, and Dutch.

[6] Rohrer was the father of the circuit simulation program SPICE and became de Geus' academic advisor for his education and early career.

[11][12][13] With two members of his original GE team, David Gregory and Bill Krieger, de Geus founded Optimal Solutions Inc. in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina on December 18, 1986.

[14] As Synopsys' CEO, de Geus led the company through several phases, including commercializing automated logic synthesis, expanding its product portfolio, and navigating acquisitions.

[8][15] De Geus grew the company from a small, one-product start-up to a provider of IC design tools, semiconductor IP, and application security solutions.

[17] He frequently speaks at major electronics and design automation conferences and has authored over 25 papers on logic synthesis, simulation, timing, and interconnect delay.

[18] During his keynote at the Hot Chips Conference in 2021, de Geus introduced advances in using artificial intelligence (AI) in semiconductor design automation.

De Geus is the recipient of the 2007 IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal for contributions to, and leadership in, the technology and business development of EDA.

[37] He discovered music at a young age; in 1972, he was inspired by T Bone Walker, the first notable electric guitar blues musician in the early 1940s.

[6] Legally Blue has played pro-bono at several fundraising events, supporting CityYear, the Stroke Awareness Foundation, the San Jose Jazz organization, Doctors Without Borders, and more.