John Murphey | Concord

John is the Executive Director for the Business Strategy and Planning team, where he is focusing on leadership of strategic initiatives and large programs, starting with Concord's healthcare clients. His team was formed when Concord acquired Upton Hill, and will be evolving the structure throughout 2021.

John's career has spanned everything from technical development to business operations leadership to large program management. He started as a COBOL developer at Electronic Data Systems, developing applications for General Motors. That gave him enough insight about technology to be able guide teams, but also enough insight to know that he didn’t want to do development forever! After getting his MBA, he became an IT consultant at Deloitte, and then moved to a small Customer Relationship Management company called Zamba Solutions, where he started his project and program management focus. After Zamba, John spent five years leading supply chain solutions for Target.com before deciding to get into healthcare. He started at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of MN leading large IT programs, then spent some time at Express Scripts, and then founded Upton Hill with five partners. Their goal was to develop a health care-focused consultancy that could span everything from business strategy to IT implementation. They grew to about 60 people in eight years, before being acquired by Concord.

Do you have any fun or exciting hobbies?

I’ve always loved downhill skiing, and a heli-skiing trip is on my bucket list.

If you could be any superhero who would you be and why?

I always liked Spider-Man a lot. It seemed pretty cool to be able to shoot webs from the inside of your wrist.

Have you ever been told you look like someone famous? If so, who?

My family says Seth Myers.

What is your favorite summer activity?

I’ve always liked getting away from it all and backpacking in the mountains with friends. In the past few years, we’ve made it to Yosemite, Banff, and Maroon Bells. Next up is the Grand Tetons, hopefully next year.

What is one thing you did as a kid that you should have gotten in trouble for, but never caught?

When I used to work at Chuck E. Cheese’s and it would get really busy, the pizza would come off the conveyor belt so fast they hit the floor occasionally. Rather than make people wait for a new one, we shoveled them off the floor and served them.

Tell us one thing no one knows about you.

I try not to tell too many people, but I’ve always been a bird-watcher, even as a little kid. In the pandemic, it seemed a lot less dorky than it did in previous years.

If you could travel anywhere in the world where would you go and why?

I really want to do a drive where we follow the scenes from the book, “The Sun Also Rises,” starting in Paris and going south to Madrid.

If you could have unlimited storage for one thing, what would it be?

I’m kind of a minimalist and I’m always trying to de-clutter our house, while my wife is a bit of a hoarder, and she’s constantly filling it up. I’d like to have free off-site storage for all the stuff she wants to keep “just in case we need it later.”

What is your favorite TV channel?

TV really seems to have gone down the tubes (no pun intended). Lately, my kids have gotten me addicted to TikTok videos. You can kill hours without even realizing it.