Dr. Lori Esposito Murray is senior fellow for national security and managing director of CEO programs at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Prior to joining CFR, Murray served as the president of the Committee for Economic Development, the nonpartisan, nonprofit public policy center of The Conference Board (CED), whose storied history includes developing the Marshall Plan for Europe. As president, Murray guided CED in continuing its long-standing tradition of bringing the best of business leadership insights and sound analysis to help shape the future of our nation’s policy on its most pressing issues, including geoeconomics and geopolitics, technology and innovation, climate, energy and nature, and fiscal health, as well as other timely issues. She was responsible for developing and implementing strategic and business plans that strengthened the organization’s nonpartisan research and policy work, brand, CEO member engagement, and policy impact.

Before joining CED, she served as an adjunct senior fellow at CFR in the national security and defense program, focusing on nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and arms control issues. Prior to her role at CFR, she held the distinguished national security chair at the U.S. Naval Academy. She also served as president and CEO of the World Affairs Councils of America, the nation’s largest nonpartisan and nonprofit grassroots organization dedicated to educating and engaging the U.S. public on global issues, and now serves as president emeritus.

Murray’s work in government crosses political parties and extends to both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. Her multiple roles have included serving as special advisor to the president on the Chemical Weapons Convention during the Clinton Administration, where she helped steer the bipartisan approval of the convention. She also served as the assistant director for multilateral affairs at the State Department’s U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, responsible for negotiations on nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons issues.

Murray also previously worked for the Department of Defense’s Federal Advisory Committee on Gender-Integrated Training in the Military and Related Issues, was a consultant to President George W. Bush’s bipartisan Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction and U.S. Intelligence Capabilities, and as national security advisor to Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-KS).

Murray is a long-standing life-time member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the board of Trustees of the Global Interdependence Center.  She is also a member of the National Association of Business Economists. 

Murray received her BA from Yale University and her PhD from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.