After graduation, he worked for the Bremen family business Diersch & Schröder for four years as managing director, being responsible for the company's mineral oil, chemistry, and shipping activities.

In 1979, he signed boxing world champion Muhammad Ali as an advertising ambassador,[4] transforming the originally German company into an international corporation.

In 2016, Hans-Peter Wild donated US$16.5 million to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation in recognition of the contribution of the US military during World War II and in appreciation of the liberation of Germany from the Nazis.

[15] In the area of intensive medicine, the University Hospital of Zürich is working on various projects that are financed via donations from Hans-Peter Wild.

[17] In 1980, Hans-Peter Wild acquired a cycling team from the Belgian ice cream manufacturer Ijsboerke and renamed it Capri Sun – Koga Miyata.

However, he terminated his collaboration with the German Rugby Federation in 2017 as he found their organisational structures insufficiently professional to achieve success on an international scale.

Wild has been honorary senator of Heidelberg University since 1996, and in 2004, he received the Bayerischer Bierorden (Bavarian Beer Award).