Retail/Wholesale: KEVIN MURPHY
GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE, FERGUSON PLC, NEWPORT NEWS
Published
Murphy got his start in the plumbing industry as a young man working summers at his father’s business, Columbus, Ohio-based Midwest Pipe and Supply.
In 1999, Ferguson Enterprises Inc. — the Newport News-based subsidiary of U.K.-based plumbing and heating products distributor Ferguson plc — bought the Murphy family’s 22-year-old plumbing business. Murphy, who graduated from Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, in 1992 with a degree in business, joined Ferguson Enterprises as an operations manager. He then worked in a variety of management positions before being named chief operating officer in 2007. A decade later, Murphy was tapped as CEO of the U.S. subsidiary, until 2019 when he was appointed group chief executive of Ferguson plc.
With fiscal 2021 revenue of $22.8 billion, Ferguson plc employs about 2,500 people in Virginia.
BEST ADVICE FOR OTHERS: What makes Ferguson special is a culture established long before I arrived, a culture where you will succeed if you care more about developing those around you than you care about your own position.
