Michael J. Murphy served as the United States Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina from February 2022 to February 2025. He had previously served in Sarajevo as Political Counselor from 2006 to 2009. Ambassador Murphy retired from the Department of State in March 2025 after 34 years of service.

Prior to serving as Ambassador in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ambassador Murphy served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs from June 2018 until September 2021. He covered European security, including the U.S. relationship with NATO and the OSCE; Arctic security; and U.S. bilateral relations with Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

From 2017-2018, Ambassador Murphy served as Director of the Office for European Security & Political-Military Affairs in the Bureau of European & Eurasian Affairs. He served as the Associate Dean of the Leadership and Management School at the National Foreign Affairs Training Center from 2015-2017.

Ambassador Murphy served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Gaborone, Botswana, from 2012-2015, and as Chargé d’Affaires, a.i., in Botswana from February 2014 to January 2015. He served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Priština, Kosovo, from 2009 to 2012.

Ambassador Murphy’s other overseas postings include London, United Kingdom; Yaoundé, Cameroon; and Lagos, Nigeria. In Washington, D.C., he served as the Chief of Staff to both the Assistant Secretary of State for European & Eurasian Affairs and the Director General of the Foreign Service as well as Desk Officer for Bulgaria and for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Ambassador Murphy’s diplomatic career included participation in the Trans-Atlantic Fellowship Program from 2001-2002, serving in the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office as Office Director for Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus.

Prior to joining the Foreign Service in 1991, Ambassador Murphy worked in the U.S. Congress for three years as the Senior Legislative Aide to Congresswoman Marilyn Lloyd of Tennessee with responsibility for international affairs and defense issues.

Ambassador Murphy is a 1987 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Hamilton College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations. He spent a year at the London School of Economics studying British history. Ambassador Murphy was born in Rochester, New York, but moved to East Greenbush, New York in 1974 where he spent the bulk of his childhood, graduated from
Columbia High School in 1983, and became a devoted New York Yankees and New York Giants fan.

Ambassador Murphy is married to Kimberly Murphy, a retired Foreign Service Officer, and the two are ardent dog lovers.