Matthew Murray

Focus areas: national security and defense policy, international trade and economic diplomacy, business ethics and anti- corruption compliance, non-government organizations and civil society, international law and human rights

Throughout his career, Mr. Murray has worked at the intersection of U.S. foreign policy, international law, commerce, and political economy.

Upon graduating Tufts in 1979, Mr. Murray acted as Research Assistant to Dr. Leslie Gelb at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and subsequently served as Legislative Assistant for National Security to Senator Edward Kennedy. In 1984, he was awarded a scholarship as an International Fellow at the Columbia University School of Public and International Affairs and graduated in 1988 with an MIA and JD from Columbia Law School.

Currently, Mr. Murray is an Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University School of International & Public Affairs and Harriman Institute; and co-founder of a Columbia Forum that convenes U.S. government experts, practitioners and academics to Innovate Solutions to Systemic Corruption.  He provides project advisory support to the U.S. State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development and international donors, specializing in helping partner countries in political transition to design institutions, policies, laws and programs to detect and prevent corruption.

Mr. Murray has been engaged as a U.S. government official, human rights lawyer, business executive and civil society activist in countering corruption in high-risk nations for more than thirty years.  He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Europe, the Middle East and Africa and a Senior Advisor on Rule of Law and Governance at USAID during the Obama-Biden Administration.

Following service in the Obama-Biden Administration, Mr. Murray was appointed by the United Nations Assistance Mission, USAID, DFID and DANIDA as an International Member of the Joint Independent Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee of Afghanistan from 2017-2019.

Over the past thirty years, Mr. Murray has developed particular expertise in countering the threats posed by transnational corruption networks based on his cross-sectoral experience, including: founding and leading an anti-corruption NGO in Russia; legal advocacy for the human rights of victims of corruption; serving as corporate executive responsible for compliance in multinational oil and gas company; leading corruption investigations and forming public-private partnerships.  He has worked on the front-lines in Afghanistan, Armenia, Belarus, Kenya, Moldova, North Macedonia, Sudan, Ukraine, Russia and other countries.

Honors and Awards

• Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award, Tufts Institute for Global Leadership, 2015.

• Sagalyn Award, Columbia University, for “Breaking the Stalemate in Strategic Arms Control: The Advantages of an Interim Agreement”, The Security Reader, Volume 3, Spring 1988.