Phil Murphy
Phil Murphy served as the 56th governor of New Jersey from 2018 to 2026, a two-term tenure that followed careers in banking, finance, and diplomacy.
Born on August 16, 1957, in Needham, Massachusetts, Murphy attended Needham High School before pursuing higher education at Harvard University and subsequently at the Wharton School. His professional life took shape across the financial sector, where he worked as a banker and financier, before he entered public service. As a member of the Democratic Party, Murphy was appointed to serve as the United States Ambassador to Germany, a post he held from 2009 to 2013. During that period of diplomatic service, he received the Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, a decoration awarded by the German government. That ambassadorship marked a significant phase in his transition from finance toward elected office.
Murphy was elected governor of New Jersey in 2017 and took office in January 2018. He was reelected in 2021, making him the first Democrat to win a second consecutive gubernatorial term in New Jersey in decades. His governorship ran through 2026, completing the arc from his origins in Needham to a sustained presence at the center of New Jersey's executive government. The Knight Commander's Cross he received during his ambassadorial years remains one of the more concrete honors attached to his public record, connecting his diplomatic work in Germany to the broader political career he carried forward into state government.
Quotes by Phil Murphy
We are closing corporate loopholes so we are hardly being heroic to close the combined reporting loophole. I think 28 or 30 other states have done it and a lot of those states will be trying to get Amazon.
If you're in Alabama, you're selling tax incentives - with all due respect to Alabama - because what else are you going to sell? In New Jersey, you've got location, public education, highly educated workforce, density, diversity, infrastructure.
When you buy a company that's been on its butt you raise a lot of money, you instantly put new management in place, but that's the end of the glory for three to five years, grinding it out one day after the other.
I think it would be a great honor to get another Super Bowl, but not just limited to that. Other events, sporting or otherwise, I think New Jersey has an enormous opportunity given our location and our natural resources, our passion generally and specifically for sports, I think we're a natural.
I think you can find a good, happy balance between being a great research university as Rutgers is and being a high-quality sports program.
I can't give up the allegiances I grew up with, given where I was born and where I grew up, but you won't see me at a Rutgers game rooting for somebody else. Let's put it that way.
Equal pay for equal work isn't, 'Here, I'll give this to you.' It's confidence, it's participation.
Earned sick leave gives workers a lot more confidence and adds to their participation in the economy.