Graff graduated from the École Polytechnique and went on to become a senior engineer. Afterwards he held several positions in the regional facilities division of the French government. Among other positions held, he served as a technical adviser overseeing the road safety, highways, and transport policy for the cabinet of the Minister for Housing, Transport, Facilities and Regional Development, from 1986 to 1987.

Between 1987 and 1990 he served as director of traffic and road safety, and also as the interdepartmental representative for road safety. In 1990 he became the regional director responsible for the facilities for Essonne, a position he held until 1993. In this year he became the deputy chief of staff for the tourism, transport and facilities minister.

In 1995 he was appointed as Director General of Civil Aviation, a position that he held until 2002. In June 2002 he became the Chief of Staff for the Minister of Transport, Facilities, Tourism, Housing and the Sea, a position in which he remained until September 2003.

In September 2003 he became the new Chairman of the Aeroports de Paris (Paris Airports Company), a public institution at the time. In July 2005, he became the first CEO and Chairman of the new private company, Aeroports de Paris.

Graff also serves on the supervisory board of NV Luchthaven Schiphol, and as a director of France Telecom where he represents the French Government. He is also the Deputy President of the International and European Affairs division of the French National Tourist Board.

He also represents the French government on the Paris Public Transport Authority (RATP) and serves as a director of MEDEF in Paris. On top of all that he is an Officer of the National Order of Merit, as well as an Officer of the Legion of Honour.

During the nine years he has been with Aeroports de Paris, Graff has proved himself only not to be  a very capable engineer, but also a master negotiator and administrator.

When he took over the reigns of the company, it faced a clear competitive advantage on the airside, with three runways at Paris-Orly and Paris-Charles de Gaulle providing two runway pairs, but faced ongoing problems with airport terminal capacity.

Between 2006 and 2010 the company, under his leadership, invested more than €3bn to build new regional terminals and boarding lounges to increase the capacity of its airport terminals by 25 percent.

Graff was recently in the news when he spoke during a conference in the Turkish city of Istanbul on the March 2012. At the conference it was announced that Aeroports de Paris had bought an 18 percent stake in TAV Havalimanlari, the Turkish airport’s operator, from Akfen Holding. The Akfen statement formed part of a filing to the Istanbul Stock Exchange.

At the same conference it was also confirmed that Aeroports de Paris would purchase a 38 percent stake in the Turkish company TAV, for a sum of $874m