Emily W. Murphy is a senior advisor to The Chertoff Group and leading expert in government contracting and the business of government. She contributes to Federal Strategy business development engagements.
Murphy has held multiple leadership roles in the federal government, including serving as Administrator for the U.S. General Services Administration. She has also served in senior roles on congressional committees for the U.S. House of Representatives and the Small Business Administration. She is currently a fellow in the School of Business at George Mason University.
Murphy served as the GSA Administrator from 2017 to 2021, leading a workforce of more than 11,000 federal employees, and overseeing $75 billion in annual contracts. As Administrator, she increased GSA’s sales by 36%, from $55 billion to $75 billion and saved customer agencies $21.6 billion. A pioneer in digital innovation, Murphy oversaw the merger of the Federal Acquisition Service and Technology Transformation Service and the creation of GSA’s Centers of Excellence. Under her leadership, GSA had the highest customer, vendor and employee satisfaction scores in the history of the agency.
Prior to serving as Administrator, Murphy was appointed as GSA’s first Chief Acquisition Officer from 2005 to 2007, where she was responsible for more than $40 billion in acquisition programs. She also served at the U.S. Small Business Administration from 2004 to 2005 as the Senior Advisor for Government Contracting and Business Development and as Acting Associate Administrator for Government Contracting.
In addition to her seven years in the Executive Branch, Murphy spent nine years in various procurement policy and leadership roles for the House of Representatives. She served as Counsel and Professional Staff Member to the Committee on Armed Services, negotiating acquisition and industrial base provisions in military public
policy.
She also held Senior Counsel and Policy Director roles for the Committee on Small Business from 2011-2016, where she directed the legislative and oversight agenda of the Committee and authored over a hundred contracting reform provisions that ultimately became law. Murphy previously worked for the Committee from 1997-2000, focusing on government contracts, disaster lending programs, and telecommunications.
In the private sector, Murphy served as General Counsel and Vice President for Operations for TerreStar National Services Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of TerreStar Networks, which operated integrated satellite and terrestrial telecommunications systems. She practiced as a government contracts attorney with two Washington, DC based firms.
Murphy is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law and Smith College. She is a member of the Young Presidents Organization, the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., and the Chief Executives Organization.