He is the founder of Cegid (Compagnie Européenne de Gestion par l'Informatique Décentralisée), and from 1987 to 2023, he served as the president of French football club Lyon, which he had owned from 1987 to 2022 before selling a majority stake to John Textor.

His ambitious plan, titled OL – Europe, was designed to develop the club on the European level and back into the first division within a time-frame of no more than four years.

Under Aulas's leadership, Lyon won their first ever Ligue 1 championship in 2002 and promptly started a then national-record streak of seven successive titles.

The club have appeared in the UEFA Champions League eleven times under Aulas, reaching the semi-finals of the competition twice, in the 2009-10 and 2019-20 seasons.

His complex style of negotiating has led to the successful transfers of many former Lyon players such as Michael Essien, Mahamadou Diarra, Karim Benzema, Florent Malouda, Eric Abidal, and Tiago Mendes with all the players departing the club for transfer fees as low as €15 million (Tiago) and as high as €38 million (Essien).