Phil Murphy
Philip Dunton Murphy is an American politician, financier, and former diplomat who served from 2018 to 2026 as the 56th governor of New Jersey. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected governor in 2017 and narrowly reelected in 2021. From 2009 to 2013, Murphy was the U.S. ambassador to Germany.
Born and raised in Massachusetts, Murphy has degrees from Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. He had a 23-year career at Goldman Sachs, where he held several high-level positions and accumulated considerable wealth before retiring in 2006. He then became active in politics. He was finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee in the mid-late 2000s under Howard Dean.
While planning to run for governor of New Jersey, Murphy and his wife Tammy Murphy launched New Start New Jersey, a progressive organization. He defeated Republican, then-Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno, in the 2017 gubernatorial election with 56% of the vote. Murphy was reelected in an unexpectedly close race with 51.2% of the vote. He is the first Democratic governor of New Jersey to win a second term since Brendan Byrne in 1977.
During Murphy's first term as governor, he signed legislation to legalize cannabis and sports betting and enact automatic voter registration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he implemented various health measures. During Murphy's second term, his wife Tammy unsuccessfully sought to fill the Senate seat vacated by Bob Menendez. He was succeeded by fellow Democrat Mikie Sherrill.
Early life and education
Murphy was born on August 16, 1957, in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in the nearby towns of Needham and Newton, the son of Dorothy Louise and Walter F. Murphy.The family was Irish American, with Phil being third generation. According to Murphy, his household was "middle class on a good day;" by his recollection, his mother, a secretary, and father, a high-school dropout who took any job he could, lived paycheck to paycheck.
Both of Murphy's parents were enthusiastic supporters of John F. Kennedy and volunteered for his campaign in the 1952 United States Senate election in Massachusetts. Murphy played soccer as a boy, an interest that stayed with him in later life. His mother believed strongly in the importance of education, and Phil and his three older siblings all earned college degrees.
Murphy graduated from Needham High School, along with future Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker, in 1975. He graduated from Harvard University in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. At Harvard he aspired to become a professional musical theater performer and was elected president of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, a theatrical student society. He then attended the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, where he received an MBA in 1983.
Finance career at Goldman Sachs (1982–2003)
Murphy began his career in finance with a summer associate internship at Goldman Sachs in 1982. He was hired after graduating in 1983. He rose in the ranks quickly, later attributing that success to his ability to make deals: "Two people may not like each other and can't work together. Their mutual dislike is their problem. I don't let it become mine. I'll be the man in the middle and the three of us can work out something everybody is happy with."From 1993 to 1997, Murphy headed the firm's Frankfurt office. His business responsibilities were later expanded to encompass Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, as well as in the emerging post-Warsaw Pact economies of Central Europe. In this role he engaged in a number of transactions with the German government's Treuhandanstalt agency, whose purpose was to conduct the privatization of formerly state-owned enterprises within the boundaries of no-longer-extant East Germany. Murphy was also active in the Atlantik-Brücke organization, including co-founding its International Advisor Council.
From 1997 to 1999, Murphy served as the President of Goldman Sachs. In that capacity, he was officed in Hong Kong. During this time Goldman Sachs profited from its investment in Yue Yuen Industrial Holdings, a shoe manufacturer that became notorious for its harsh labor practices. The $55 million investment was made the year before Murphy took the Asia post and it is unclear to what extent Murphy was aware of the firm's operational characteristics. In 1998 Murphy told the Wall Street Journal that "We are elite in the sense the Marine Corps is elite".
In 1999, Murphy secured a spot on the firm's management committee. There his colleagues included Hank Paulson and Gary Cohn, both of whom later served at highest levels of the federal government. This coincided with the repeal of Glass–Steagall; the repeal allowed Murphy and his colleagues to make much greater use of leverage and profoundly changed how the company generated profits.
In 2001, Murphy became global co-head of the firm's Investment Management Division. This unit oversaw the investments of foundations, pensions, hedge funds, and wealthy personages, and by 2003 had amassed $373 billion in holdings. Hedge funds, in particular, received large lines of credit from Murphy's unit. Another company initiative that Murphy helped to undertake was the unit that did major business in the emerging markets within the EMEA region.
In 2003, Murphy's day-to-day responsibilities at the firm ended, and he became a Senior Director of the firm. He retired in 2006. Murphy spent 23 years at Goldman Sachs in all.
Early government and political career
Chair of the New Jersey Benefits Task Force
In May 2005, Governor Richard Codey named Murphy to chair the New Jersey Benefits Task Force on public sector employee benefits in response to the New Jersey pension crisis, a particularly long-running instance of the state-level pensions crises taking place nationwide. The task force reported its findings in December 2005. By this time Murphy was already considered to be retired from Goldman Sachs. The report decried past state practices, saying that "gimmicks" had been constructed instead of genuine solutions.As chair, Murphy recommended the sale of publicly owned assets. For the most part that did not happen, but some of his other suggestions, such as raising the age of retirement and recalculating how pensions related to salary earned, were taken. Labor unions opposed the recommendations, with leader Carla Katz saying, "We will fight vigorously and loudly against any cuts to our pensions or health benefits proposed by the task force." The New York Times wrote that "no matter what happens, the report's legacy may well be that it tried to tackle the issues head-on."
Finance chair of the Democratic Party
After leaving Goldman Sachs, Murphy served from 2006 to 2009 as the National Finance Chair of the Democratic National Committee, where he worked with DNC Chair Howard Dean. Murphy liked both Dean's vision for the party and the discipline Dean brought to the task, and the two became close friends.It was Murphy who financed Dean's "50-state strategy". Powerful Democrats in Congress such as Charles Schumer and Rahm Emanuel opposed the strategy, but Murphy refused to engage in this dispute publicly, saying, "I'm a sucker for the view that you have it out in the locker room, not in public." Former Goldman Sachs colleague and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin said of Murphy's ability to handle the new position, "He has very substantial technical expertise from his corporate finance work, but he combines that with a wonderful facility for dealing with people." Dean later said that Murphy well learned the lesson not all such figures of commerce understand: that while in business you can command people to do things, in politics things are never so simple.
During his first year, Murphy focused on gaining donations from his contacts from his university years and Goldman Sachs; within that year he was able to substantially reduce the DNC's gap with the Republican National Committee. In all, Murphy says he raised $300 million for the DNC.
Murphy was also a big donor to Democratic candidates, giving them almost $1.5 million by 2009. This included modest contributions to individual candidates and several six-figure sums to party committees. During the hotly contested 2008 Democratic presidential primaries he was a superdelegate but remained uncommitted for most of the contest.
Ambassadorship
Murphy served as United States Ambassador to Germany under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013. The possibility of his being named to the post was first reported by Spiegel Online International in May 2009. The former U.S. Ambassador John Kornblum supported the choice, saying, "Murphy has been involved in German-American relations for many years. He's a good choice." An agrément was issued, and Obama formally nominated him to the position on July 9. Murphy was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 7, and appeared with his family in Berlin on August 21. That they arrived in an expensive Gulfstream V executive jet irked Chancellor Merkel, who saw it as evidence of the long practice of presidents awarding wealthy donors with ambassadorships. Murphy presented his credentials in Berlin to German President Horst Koehler on September 3, which the State Department considers his effective start date. He was sworn into the position on September 13.The United States diplomatic cables leak contained negative statements Murphy signed about senior German politicians, including a remark by Murphy that Merkel was "insecure" and unfavorable comments by embassy staff about Guido Westerwelle, the German foreign minister. Some German officials expressed desire that Murphy be recalled. In response, Murphy appeared on German television outlets such as ZDF in an attempt at damage control. In Spiegel Online, he said, "I'm a big boy. At the end of the day, the buck stops with me," and that he would not "apologize for one speck" of what his staff had done. On December 5, he apologized for the leak in Welt am Sonntag. Murphy later said that the episode was "incredibly awkward and embarrassing" but that the two countries worked through it, and that in the end Germany-United States relations were stronger than ever.
Regarding the European debt crisis, Murphy said in 2013, "The big debate in Europe, which I think is a false debate, is either fiscal consolidation or growth. And the reality is that Europe needs both: it needs fiscal consolidation and growth." Regarding economic differences between the nations, he said, "Germany believes strongly that the first order of business is to cut your debts and deficits and from that, good things will come. We're more likely to say a little bit of stimulus will jump-start things, even if it means incurring more debt. But you work your way through those issues."
On May 29, 2013, it was announced that Murphy was stepping down from the post. He was still ambassador as of July 3; he returned to the United States at some point during July and formally stayed in the role until his mission terminated on August 26.