Wahl began his career in government in 1984 at the Council of State as an auditor and Master of Requests; in 1986 he also became an advisor to the president of the Commission des opérations de bourse, the French stock market regulator. In 1989, he became cabinet director to Tony Dreyfus when Dreyfus was Secretary of State under Michel Rocard, then became Rocard's technical advisor on economic, financial and fiscal matters. Under Rocard he was able to achieve the passage of the Contribution sociale généralisée, a social benefits tax, despite the opposition of the then Minister of Finance, Pierre Bérégovoy. In private business, he worked for Compagnie bancaire beginning in 1991, as advisor to the CEO, from 1992 as a member of the board, and from 1994 as assistant CEO, and in 1997 became director of the specialist financial services arm and a member of the executive committee at Banque Paribas, with which Compagnie bancaire merged. In 1999 he became CEO of the French directorate of savings banks, CNCE. This position carried with it the presidency of the holding group Sopassure and of the board of the insurer Écureuil assurances IARD and membership of the governing board of CDC Ixis and CNP Assurances. In 2005 he became CEO of Havas and in 2006 vice president of Bolloré. In January 2007 he returned to banking at The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, initially as CEO for France, in March 2008 becoming advisor to the RBS Global Banking and Markets Board and in December 2008, CEO for France, Belgium and Luxembourg. In January 2011, Wahl was appointed chairman of the board of the Banque postale division of La Poste and adjunct CEO of the La Poste group. On 25 September 2013, the President of France appointed him president and chief executive of La Poste, succeeding Jean-Paul Bailly. He has promised to pursue three goals: economic health, good working conditions, and above all customer satisfaction, which he has developed in his 2014 strategic plan, La Poste 2020. He implements a diversification strategy for La Poste's activities, developing amongst others : home-care services for seniors, sessions of driving licence written exam. In 2016, he signed a contract to take majority stakes in Axeo, a large network of local branches specialized in neighbourhood services. He also expands Geopost activities in Italy, Russia, Brazil and Vietnam.
Personal life
Philippe Wahl is married to Sylvie Schwob, a human resources executive at Sanofi whom he met at university, and has three children. He is a member of the board of the Institut Montaigne, a liberal think tank.
