Michael Murray, PhD

Dr. Michael Murray is president of the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations (AVDF). Prior to his time at AVDF, he served as senior vice president of programs at the John Templeton Foundation (JTF) from 2011 to 2019. While at JTF he oversaw the development of the Foundation’s grantmaking during a period when the endowment grew from $800M to $3.2B over a three-year period. In addition to developing a portfolio of research grants valued at more than $100 million annually, Dr. Murray led the global expansion of JTFs grant making, most notably in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region. Dr. Murray also holds the post of senior visiting scholar in philosophy at Franklin and Marshall College and has held academic appointments at Oxford University, the University of Notre Dame, and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has published scholarly monographs and edited works with Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Yale University Press, Blackwell Publishers and others.