Some call him “Mr. Everywhere,” but to John Murphy, artfully meshing his banking career with community service is what the executive has naturally grown to do.
Wondering where he finds the time to be involved in so many community forums — from local boys and girls clubs to more than a few boards of directors — is a common question for those who know and work with Murphy, senior vice president and director of business development at Reading Co-operative Bank for the past five years.
“I’m pretty sure he doesn’t sleep,” said Shanna Cahalane, assistant vice president and director of marketing at Reading Co-operative Bank, who credits Murphy as her mentor. “He goes to multiple events a day. When he’s there, he’s really invested in being there and he’s engaged. When you talk to John, it feels like you’re the only person he’s talked to all day.”
Indeed, Murphy is nothing short of a community service staple in the towns just north of Boston surrounding the Interstate-95 belt, hence the nickname. Whether he’s physically lighting the trees for a festival (and later storing the lights in his garage) or sitting on a town finance committee, Murphy is an active participant in making his community thrive, Cahalane said.
“I don’t do what I do other than to just do it,” said Murphy, who was also recently awarded the Reading/North Reading Chamber of Commerce’s Outstanding Citizen of the Year award.
Murphy said he is thankful to work for a bank that encourages community service. “As an organization, [the bank] understands the difference a business can make in the community and that business can make for the community. If you’re a business and you help the community be successful, then indirectly, you will be successful and vice versa,” said Murphy, 54. “My position doing business development is to network and make connections. So it blends because I like working as part of a team and helping organizations.”
Murphy’s diverse resume is somewhat unusual in community banking, however. He is a former CEO and CFO of a credit union. Before that, he was vice president and director of operations at Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, where he worked for a total of 23 years. He holds an MBA from Northeastern University and a bachelor’s degree in finance from Suffolk University.
“Someone who’s a CFO doesn’t necessarily translate into a sales guy,” Murphy said. “I love working with a team. I love helping people. I love interacting with people. That’s what makes it such a good fit.”
Murphy counts transactions “where I helped someone out,” such as first-time homebuyers, as those that define his banking tenure. He said he particularly likes working with local non-profits because he has the community connections to better serve them. “They need new connections with new supporters to help them have a successful fundraiser,” he said.
When off work, Murphy, who grew up in Winchester, said he enjoys working around his house and called himself a “skilled carpenter.” He remembered an 18-month long project he undertook when his family lived in Stoneham; he and a friend added onto his home a family room, a kitchen and a master bedroom.
“I was young and naïve,” Murphy said, laughing at the time it took to complete the project. But he got the job done, just as “Mr. Everywhere” always does.
