Mary Claire Murphy
Mary Claire Murphy is the Vice President, External Relations in the Textron Washington, D.C. office.
In this position, she is responsible for developing and implementing corporate strategies and activities with regards to government affairs, international operations, charitable and operating budgets within the Washington, D.C. arena. Mary Claire also oversees corporate communications & external affairs within the Washington office, and is a member of the Textron Corporate Communications Council, the Textron PAC Board of Directors and the Textron Global Leadership Team.
Prior to joining Textron in January 2008, Mary Claire served as the Special Assistant & Director of Protocol to the United States Secretaries of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Robert M. Gates. In that position, she was the principal advisor and managed all domestic and international events hosted by the Secretary of Defense.
Before assuming her appointment at the Pentagon, Mary Claire held various senior management positions within the telecommunications industry in Washington. She served as Vice President at the United States Telecom Association, and as Vice President for Association Programs at the Cellular Telecom Industry Association. In both of these positions, she oversaw the financial management for the departments responsible for generating the Associations’ annual operating revenue.
Mary Claire also served as Assistant Chief of Protocol to the White House under 41st President George H.W. Bush and Secretary of State James A. Baker, III. In this position, Mary Claire led the ceremonial team and coordinated details for all official international State visits hosted by the President, as well as the logistics pertaining to Presidential Inaugurations, State funerals, Global Summits and Joint Sessions of Congress.
Mary Claire is a native of Thomasville, Georgia and attended The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. She is married with two children and resides in Alexandria, Virginia.