Biography of Alan Murray

Alan Murray is online executive editor of The Wall Street Journal, and author of the paper's award-winning "Business" column, which runs on page 2 every Wednesday.

He is also a regular contributor to CNBC, and author of the book “Revolt in the Board Room: The New Rules of Power in Corporate America.”

Mr. Murray has management responsibility for the Journal’s multimedia efforts, including its relationship with CNBC television, the Wall Street Journal books business, the paper’s events business, and a variety of online ventures.

Previously, Mr. Murray served as CNBC’s Washington, D.C., bureau chief and was co-host of the nightly show,  “Capital Report with Alan Murray and Gloria Borger."  While working at CNBC, he also wrote the Journal's weekly "Political Capital" column. Prior to that, he spent a decade as the Washington bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Murray joined The Wall Street Journal in 1983, as a reporter covering economic policy. He was named Washington deputy bureau chief in January 1992 and became bureau chief in September 1993. During his tenure as bureau chief, the Washington bureau won three Pulitzer Prizes, as well as many other awards.

In addition to “Revolt in the Board Room,” he has authored two best-selling books: “The Wealth of Choices: How the New Economy Puts Power in Your Hands and Money in Your Pocket,” published by Random House in 1991, and “Showdown at Gucci Gulch: Lawmakers, Lobbyists and the Unlikely Triumph of Tax Reform,” co-authored with Jeffrey Birnbaum and published by Random House in 1987. “Gucci Gulch” received the American Political Science Association’s Carey McWilliams Award in 1988. Mr. Murray also garnered two Overseas Press Club awards for his writings on Asia, as well as a Gerald Loeb award and a John Hancock award for his coverage of the Federal Reserve.

Mr. Murray began his journalism career in June 1977 as the business and economics editor of the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times. He joined the Congressional Quarterly in Washington as a reporter in June 1980, and the following year became a reporter at the Japan Economic Journal in Tokyo on a Luce Fellowship.

He serves on the Governing Council of the Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia and is a member of the Gridiron Club and of the Council on Foreign Relations. He has served on the Board of Visitors of the University of North Carolina and the Board of Trustees of St. Patrick’s Episcopal School.

Mr. Murray received a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of North Carolina, where he was a John Motley Morehead scholar, a merit scholar and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He earned a master’s degree in economics at the London School of Economics. In 2005, he completed the Stanford Executive Program at the school’s Graduate School of Business.

He is married to Lori Murray, a foreign policy consultant and former special adviser to the president for chemical weapons and former assistant director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.  They live in Greenwich, Conn., with their two children.