After studying law at Paris Assas University and spending two years with General Motors, Philippe Gas joined Disney in 1991 as finance controller and served on the team that opened Disneyland Paris in April 1992. In 1997, he was promoted to Director of Corporate Compensation at Disney's headquarters in Burbank, California. In 2000, he was named Regional Vice President, Human Resources, for the Walt Disney Company Asia-Pacific, where he led the company's HR strategy in 13 countries. He returned to the French resort in 2004 as Senior Vice President of Human Resources.