Chris Murphy, Chief Communications Officer
Chris leads Marketing, Communications, and Development across the Rocketship network. He spent the first decade of his career as a strategic planner for the world’s top creative advertising agencies (Fallon, Wieden + Kennedy, Ogilvy) building marketing strategies for blue-chip brands (Citibank), national non-profits (PBS), and global foundations (The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). His work was recognized with five EFFIEs – the industry’s top honor for marketing effectiveness. While working on a voter advocacy campaign for the Gates Foundation, Chris caught the global health bug. He left the advertising world, moved to Kenya, and built a strategic communications capacity for Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest HIV control program. In 2010, he moved to the Bay Area but kept one foot in East Africa as he headed up marketing and development for the pioneering social enterprise Living Goods. Chris went on to lead marketing at Common Sense Media, where he spearheaded a national campaign with Univision to help close the broadband internet access gap and directed a $30M national PSA campaign.
Born and raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Chris now calls northern California home. He and his wife Marisa are proud parents of boy-girl twins.
Chris earned his B.S. in Marketing and Cultural Studies from the University of Minnesota and attended graduate school at The Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.