Dr. Lori Esposito Murray is a global affairs consultant with deep expertise in international policy and extensive experience advising senior leadership across the public and private sectors. Most recently, she was a senior fellow for national security and managing director of CEO programs at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

Prior to CFR, Dr. Murray was president of the Committee for Economic Development (CED), the nonpartisan, nonprofit, CEO member, public policy center of The Conference Board, whose legacy includes helping craft the Marshall Plan. As president, she advanced CED’s tradition of bringing business leadership insights and rigorous analysis to shape policy on critical geoeconomic and geopolitical issues—ranging from technology innovation and energy to fiscal policy and managing global uncertainty. She led strategic planning to enhance the organization’s research, branding, CEO engagement, and policy impact.

Dr. Murray previously held the distinguished national security chair at the U.S. Naval Academy. She was also president and CEO of the World Affairs Councils of America, the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit grassroots organization focused on global education, and now holds the title of president emeritus.

Her bipartisan government service spans both Congress and the Executive Branch. She was special advisor to the president on the Chemical Weapons Convention, helping to secure bipartisan Senate ratification, and served as assistant director at the State Department’s U.S. Arms Control & Disarmament Agency, leading negotiations on nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. She also chaired the Secretary of Defense’s  Federal Advisory Committee on Gender-Integrated Training in the Military, served as a consultant to President George W. Bush’s Commission on U.S. Intelligence & Weapons of Mass Destruction and was Executive Director of the US-China Security & Economic Review Commission. Earlier in her career, she was a professional associate at the National Academy of Science and served nearly a decade as national security advisor to Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-KS).

Dr. Murray is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Trustee of the Committee for Economic Development and serves on the Board of Trustees of the Global Interdependence Center.

Dr. Murray has published in numerous media outlets, including The Hill, Barron’s, Fortune, Real Clear Politics, and is a regular guest on The Conference Board’s C-Suite Perspectives podcast.  

She earned her B.A. from Yale University and her Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins SAIS.