Steven Murphy (born March 1954) is an American business executive and prominent figure in the international art market. Previously CEO of

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is owned by Groupe Artémis, t ...

, and before that, publishing firm Rodale in

Emmaus, Pennsylvania Emmaus ( ) is a borough in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 U.S. census, it had a population of 11,652. Emmaus is located in the Lehigh Valley, the third largest metropolitan area in Pennsylvania and 68th largest metropolitan area in t ...

, Murphy is currently Managing Partner at London-based Murphy & Partners.

Early life

Steven Pleshette Murphy was born in March 1954. He graduated from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

, Washington, D.C. with a bachelor's in English literature.

Career

Murphy worked at the publisher's

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pub ...

from 1985, serving as a division president until 1991, when he joined

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 2012, ...

Angel Records Angel Records was a record label founded by EMI in 1953. It specialised in classical music, but included an occasional operetta or Broadway score. and one Peter Sellers comedy disc. The famous Recording Angel trademark was used by the Gramopho ...

as its president. His tenure at EMI ended in 1998 with his appointment to

Disney Publishing Worldwide Disney Publishing Worldwide (DPW), formerly known as The Disney Publishing Group and Buena Vista Publishing Group, is the publishing subsidiary of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Its imprints incl ...

as managing director. He joined the privately held publishing firm

Rodale, Inc. Rodale, Inc. (), was an American publisher of health and wellness magazines, books, and digital properties headquartered in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, with a satellite office in New York City. The company was founded in 1930. In 2017, it was acquired ...

in 2000 as COO and president, and subsequently became the first non-family member to be appointed CEO, in 2002. Credited with the turnaround of Rodale's fortunes, notable events during his time there included the publishing of its first big success, '' The South Beach Diet,'' Al Gore's ''

An Inconvenient Truth ''An Inconvenient Truth'' is a 2006 American documentary film directed by Davis Guggenheim about former Vice President of the United States, United States Vice President Al Gore's campaign to educate people about global warming. The film featur ...

,'' and the growth of magazine title ''Men’s Health''. According to the company, it experienced its most profitable period under his decade long tenure. In 2004 he was named one of ''

BusinessWeek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York Cit ...

''’s Top 25 Best Managers of the Year. In 2010 Murphy was appointed CEO of Christie's. He was hired to bring the auction house online and expand its sales in the Far East and other new markets. He spent $50 million on expanding the company's internet presence and infrastructure, including the hiring of experts. His departure from Christie's in 2014 drew some speculation as to the success of his tenure, despite happening not long after Christie's achieved the biggest single art auction sale value in history - selling $853 million worth of contemporary and post-war art. Murphy was on the board of directors of

Ralph Lauren Ralph Lauren, ( ; ; born October 14, 1939) is an American fashion designer, philanthropist, and billionaire businessman, best known for the Ralph Lauren Corporation, a global multibillion-dollar enterprise. He has become well known for his c ...

from 2005 to 2010, stepping down to act as a strategic consultant to the management. In 2015 Murphy founded the international art advisory, Murphy & Partners. Murphy was appointed to the board of trustees for the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and ...

for a period of four years from 1 January 2017.

Personal life

Murphy is married to the parenting counselor and author, Ann Pleshette Murphy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, Steven 1954 births Living people Rodale, Inc. Christie's people EMI Disney people 21st-century American businesspeople Georgetown University alumni