Philippe Bru, 54, is a graduate of the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (1990) and ESSEC (1992). He has spent his entire career at SNCF, joining the Strategy Department for the Main Lines Division in 1992.

He then held a number of management positions, including Director of the SNCF Commercial Trains Board in Toulouse from 1999 to 2002, Director of the SNCF Midi-Pyrénées Train Drivers Board from 2002 to 2005, and Director of Operations at Thalys International, in Brussels from 2006 to 2007.

From 2007 on, he has been successively in charge of several regions: Languedoc-Roussillon from 2007 to 2010, Provence-Alpes Côte d'Azur from 2010 to 2016, Nouvelle-Aquitaine from 2016 to 2019, and Occitanie since 2020, with the task of managing several thousand employees as well as rail services and the relationships with local organising authorities.