The second of four children, Brian was born in Putnam, Connecticut. His father, the late William Murphy, was a manufacturing comptroller with Black and Decker. The family moved to Easton when Brian was in second grade. His parents fell in love with the Eastern Shore and decided to make it their home.
Brian's mother is a retired high school English teacher. Brian and his three siblings are products of Maryland’s public schools, and they are all proud University of Maryland graduates. In fact, each one has their name etched on the McKeldin Mall fountain as members of Omicron Delta Kappa leadership fraternity.
His older brother, Paul, was Phi Beta Kappa at Maryland, and is now a practicing anesthesiologist in Richmond, VA. Brian's younger brother, Steve, is a graduate of Cambridge University and holds a PhD and law degree from the University of Virginia. His younger sister, Jennifer, has a nursing degree from Johns Hopkins and is a practicing oncology nurse living in Baltimore.
Brian graduated from Easton High School and attended the University of Maryland on an academic scholarship. He was a walk-on member of Maryland's ACC Champion soccer team and the President of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. After college, Brian accepted a position with Constellation Energy in Baltimore. Over the next ten years, he played an integral part in growing Constellation into a Fortune 125 company, with thousands of employees in North America and around the world. While at Constellation, Brian was a member of the United Way's Alexis de Tocqueville Society, and took great pride in Constellation's positive role in the Baltimore community. He also likes to point out that the company he helped build paid hundreds of millions in federal, state, and local taxes annually, enough to fund the Baltimore City public schools. When Constellation overextended its credit obligations in 2008, it decided to pare down its risk exposure. As a result, Murphy accepted a severance, and founded the Plimhimmon Group. The Plimhimmon Group's first investment, The Smith Island Baking Company, has received national media attention for its conscious and principled business practices.
Brian's undergraduate degree is in Economics, and he has always loved reading the classic thinkers like Friedman, de Tocqueville, and Hayek. Brian has a passion for creating opportunity for all, and believes every American has the potential to succeed. He has worked with those less fortunate in Baltimore, Washington, DC’s Anacostia neighborhood, La Paz, Bolivia, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Brian has supported work with street children in Nairobi, Kenya, and through various aid agencies he and his family currently support eight children throughout the developing world. Locally, Brian serves on the board of PACT, a non-profit in Owings Mills which provides services to people with developmental needs.
Brian has an MBA, with a concentration in Finance, from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. While at Wharton, Brian reaffirmed his belief that free markets are the most effective way to address poverty, educate children, and create opportunity. Brian knows the government must play a role in caring for the very poorest among us, but Maryland's current policies of deficit spending are unsustainable and irresponsible.
In 2004, Brian married the former Joy Ellen Stephenson of Arlington, Virginia. Joy is a graduate of the Pennsylvania State University, as are her three brothers, and is a "retired" electrical engineer who stays home with their four children. The family worships at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda.
