Philippe Dufour has an MBA from London Business School and a Master's degree in Economics from the University of Aix-en-Provence. He began his career in 1989 as Director of the Rhône Poulenc production unit in New Zealand. He became Regional Director for Econocom in 1990 and for the IT engineering group Transiciel in 1993.
In 1998, he joined the strategy consultancy Parthenon, first in the United Kingdom and later in the United States.
In 2000, he founded PrePay Technologies in London, a company acquired by the Accor group in 2007. He remained its Chief Executive Officer until 2009. In 2010, he was appointed Executive Vice President, Strategy and Development for Edenred, before becoming Executive Vice President for Alternative Investments in 2012.