After studying literature, Philippe Cholous was trained and contracted as an infantry officer. He then served as an infantry combat platoon leader in the French Marines. He then became a career officer in the French National Gendarmerie. He successively served as a swat team leader, company, and battalion commander up to the rank of colonel. He was deployed twice as battalion commander, both in Ivory Coast and Kosovo. He had been then embedded 2 years long in Afghan counter-insurgency units. He had a 2 years tour in French Guyana and another one in the French West Indies, and short-term missions in Russia, Romania, Bosnia, Cameroon, French Polynesia, Guadeloupe, and New Caledonia.

He graduated from the Joint Staff College (Ecole de guerre), in Paris, and has published several books in the field of policing and military.

Married with 5 children, he retired in 2018 in order to join the ICRC as a delegate to the security forces (Police/Gendarmerie), in Central Africa and Chad.

He’s currently the Police/Gendarmerie delegate at the ICRC HQ in Geneva.