Tom Murphy is a visionary global business leader who builds and leads teams capable of delivering audacious, game-changing transformations on behalf of their organizations. He is particularly skilled in communications, change management and the motivation necessary to help team members across global organizations achieve more than they ever thought possible. Murphy is a highly experienced technology leader who has been the chief information officer for very large companies in multiple industries, representing both for-profit and nonprofit sectors.
In February of 2013, Murphy was named the first-ever University chief information officer for the University of Pennsylvania. Reporting to both the executive vice president of administration and the provost (chief academic officer), he is responsible for Penn's IT organization, which serves the wide-ranging needs of faculty, researchers, students, staff and alumni. In this capacity, he is responsible for furthering pedagogy, supporting the $1 billion-plus research enterprise, supporting administration of the largest private employer in Pennsylvania and providing the outreach tools necessary to deliver Penn's recently announced $4.1 billion fundraising campaign, The Power of Penn.
Murphy is also responsible for cybersecurity at Penn, where he co-chairs the Privacy & Security Committee and is a member of the Institutional Risk Committee and the Senior Incident Response Team. Since arriving at Penn, he has initiated and led major system modernization efforts including student systems, research systems, human resources and payroll.
Prior to UPenn, Murphy spent eight years as the global chief information officer and chief integration officer at AmerisourceBergen, the Fortune 20 wholesale distributor of pharmaceuticals and related health-care products and services. During that time, Murphy conceived and led the $400 million Business Transformation program, the SAP-enabled initiative designed to align the internal business organization, processes and supporting technologies to enable ABC to grow from a $50 billion to a $100 billion organization in five years. He led and inspired a team of 1,700 from ABC IT, ABC Business, IBM Global Services and SAP Custom Development and Professional Services to successfully deliver on-time and on-budget one of the largest, most complex ERP programs of the past two decades.
Prior to AmerisourceBergen, Murphy spent 20 years in the tour and travel industry, where he first entered the information technology field with Marriott Hotels & Resorts. He continued with Interstate Hotels & Resorts, Omni Hotels, Avis Rent-A-Car and Bristol Hotels & Resorts. He capped this off with five years as chief information officer at Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, where he oversaw all technology and supported the launch of 13 new ships in 3.5 years, a doubling of capacity that has never been equaled.
Murphy currently serves as a member of the board of directors for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh, an SEC-regulated government-sponsored enterprise. He is chair of the Operational Risk committee, a member of the Executive Committee and serves on the Governance & Public Policy committee. He is a co-founder and board member for the Technology Business Management Council, a nonprofit professional organization dedicated to establishing and promoting business management standards and practices that empower IT executives.
Murphy was recently named the 2018 nonprofit/public sector Philadelphia CIO of the Year by InspireCIO and was elected to the CIO Hall of Fame in 2010.
He holds a BA in English from the University of Richmond in Virginia. He and his family reside in Wayne, Pennsylvania.