A graduate of HEC Paris, he has more than 30 years of international experience in the industrial biotech sector. From 1992 to 2011, Philippe worked for the Genencor group, a global biotechnology group and a pioneer in the field of industrial enzymes. He was successively Director in charge of the commercial development of Genencor in Europe (1992-99), VP and Business Unit Manager (1999-06) then Executive VP (2006-11) of Genencor Inc. During this period, he was notably one of the founders in 2007 of DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol and member of its board of directors. From 2011 to 2014, he became head of Virdia Inc., an American company specializing in the development of innovative industrial solutions for the production of biofuels and bioproducts from biomass.