Ambassador Matthew Murray

Ambassador Matt Murray joined the State Department in 1998 and is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service.  Prior to his appointment as Deputy Commandant of NDU's Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy, he served as the U.S. Senior Official for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).  He was nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate for the rank of Ambassador during his tenure of service in this role, during which he led the coordination of the U.S. APEC host year in 2023.  He previously held economic policy leadership roles as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Trade Policy and Negotiations and as the Department's Senior Bureau Official for Economic and Business Affairs.

Throughout his State Department career, Ambassador Murray has focused on advancing U.S. interests in the Indo-Pacific region with a particular focus on China.  From 2018 to 2020, he was the Minister-Counselor for Economic Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, and he completed earlier diplomatic assignments at the U.S. Mission in China in both Shanghai and Beijing.  Ambassador Murray also has served overseas at U.S. embassies in Canberra, New Delhi, and Dar es Salaam, as well as domestically as Director of the State Department’s 24/7 Watch in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research and as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment.

In 2010, he earned a Master of Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College where he received the Military Officers’ Association of America (MOAA) Writing Award.  He also has a master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh and a bachelor’s degree from Washington College.  Ambassador Murray and his wife, Sharla, are Maryland natives and have three sons — a middle school teacher, an Army officer, and a computer engineering student.