Mr. Murray began his career with Shell as a technologist in a broad variety of chemical plants in the UK. From there, he held increasingly senior positions in sales, marketing and trading in the UK and internationally. He came to the US with Shell in 1994 to lead the crude oil group that supplied 1.5 mb/d crude to Shell Oil’s five domestic refineries. This involved understanding a wide array of feedstock material and refinery technology, as well as domestic lease crude production and subsequent movement in the midstream arena. After working in a broad strategy role in the Upstream business, Mr. Murray started an international trading company that profitably traded crude, refined products and LPG, plus associated paper instruments. Subsequently, he successfully led the turnaround of Shell Energy Services, a company marketing gas and electricity across the US to residential and commercial customers. He returned to Shell Chemicals to lead the Higher Olefins and Derivatives business with a presence in fifty countries and four major manufacturing facilities, primarily in the US and Europe.
He left Shell in 2006 to become the COO of a PE backed deregulated Energy Company and later served as COO of Direct Energy. In his time at these companies, he successfully executed a number of mergers and acquisitions, all of which delivered more than the promised return to the shareholder. In two years, he tripled the business as defined by both number of customers and EBITDA in the important NE US market. His role at Direct Energy involved significant product innovation with market technology leaders including Nest (Google) and Samsung.
Mr. Murray gained a first class honors degree in Chemistry from Edinburgh University, Scotland. His education has also incorporated courses in executive leadership and business finance courses at Wharton and INSEAD. While employed at Shell, he became a professional chemist, as recognized by the Royal Society of Chemistry (MRSC), and a graduate member of the Institute of Chemical Engineers (UK) – I. Chem.E. During his time in the UK, Steven was a Captain in the 10th Battalion of the Parachute Regiment. He is a member of several not for profit boards spanning schools, theatre and the USO.