Diane Williams Murphy
President & CEO
During her 35-year career, in government, public affairs, public relations, corporate marketing and communications, Diane has amassed a unique portfolio of representing multi billion corporations, counseling government and political leaders, and leading highly-visible campaigns for the most inventive moonshot startups. Her career began in Washington, DC as a press secretary to the Minority Leader of the US House of Representatives. Subsequently, she led media strategies for 30 political campaigns, while developing strategic issue-management campaigns in energy and defense, including the launch of successful publications, DEFENSE NEWS and SPACE NEWS. Her first company, Federal City Communications represented Lockheed Martin, Motorola and IRIDIUM, TRW and Grumman and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Her team has led numerous educational campaigns and marketed space films for the National Air and Space Museum and IMAX corporation and she helped to found the XPRIZE Foundation and publicize the first private flight to space, the ANSARI XPRIZE.
In 2002, Murphy was recruited to be Vice President of EADS North America and later joined the leadership team at Northrop Grumman Aerospace in California. Before forming Aquarius Group, she served as VP of Marketing and Communications for SPACEX and was a consultant at the Department of Energy.
Aquarius Group clients include: Masdar’s Zayed Future Energy Prize (UAE); B612 Foundation; the Planetary Society; Asteroid Day; Earth Echo; Singularity University; Made in Space; Fellow Robots; Semtive; and C2 Montreal as well as private consulting.
Diane Murphy was educated at Friends Academy in New York; Northwestern University; Georgetown University and Singularity University. She is a Trustee of the XPRIZE Foundation and Youth Service America. She resides at the very top of the Hollywood Hills, and her passions include playing classical piano, tennis, writing, and mentoring young people. She is the mother of Ian and Meghan Murphy - and her great dog, Eddie Murphy.