Corporate Governance - Not-For-Profit

President & CEO
Sharp HealthCare

Michael W. Murphy, president and chief executive officer, Sharp HealthCare, honored as Director of the Year for a not-for-profit board.

Murphy was appointed to his position in June 1996, and also serves on the board of directors. In his leadership role, Murphy has been instrumental in bringing the board to a new level of corporate governance and best practices.

He was challenged immediately after starting at Sharp, when Sharp was going to be merged with a large healthcare purchasing group. To avert that outcome, he needed to reconfigure the board, including recruiting a new chair and vice chair and several new directors. He got the support he needed and turned the board—and the decision to merge—around. He was able to keep the organization together and now it is the largest healthcare provider in San Diego.

Murphy oversees a workforce of nearly 14,000 employees, 2,600 affiliated physicians and 2,000 volunteers, providing care and service in a fully integrated not-for-profit system that includes four acute-care hospitals, three specialty hospitals, three affiliated medical groups, five urgent care centers, four skilled nursing facilities, home health, hospice, state-of-the-art outpatient facilities and a health plan.

Under his leadership, Sharp strives to fulfill its vision of becoming the best place to work, practice medicine and receive care.

His career in health care spans more than 20 years. He served as chairman of the board of the Greater San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce in 2005. Murphy is a member of the American Hospital Association's Health Care Systems Governing Council and is actively involved as a member and supporter of several community-based health and social service organizations. Murphy has also been a director on the board of Jack in the Box since 2002.