founders
USMA 1964
Vice-Chair, Thayer Leadership & Thayer Hotel; Past Chair/CEO, Comfort Systems (NYSE: FIX)
William F. (Bill) Murdy is the Lead Director on the Board of Global Infrastructure Solutions Inc. (GISI) a $15 billion private company in the construction and construction services sector. Further, he is the Co-Founder and Chair of VetAccel (home healthcare services for veterans provided by veterans), and Chair of Everpoint Services (maintenance for commercial scale solar and wind power facilities). Previously, he has served on the Boards of Vectrus (now V2X, NYSE: VVX), UIL - now Avangrid (NYSE: AGR), Kaiser Aluminum (NASDAQ: KALU) and LSB Industries (NYSE: LXU) and has been an investor in/director of/advisor to a large number of private enterprises. He is currently a principal owner and Vice-Chair of the Thayer Hotel at West Point and Vice-Chair/Co-Founder of Thayer Leadership, a successful and growing leader development institute headquartered at West Point.
Until recently he served as the Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army (CASA) for Connecticut and is now an active CASA Emeritus. He is on the Board of the Johnny Mac Foundation (scholarships for the children of fallen in combat) and is a former Vice-Chair and member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Business Executives for National Security (BENS). He was the Founder and former Chair of Warrior Gateway (connecting veterans with services). He is a former longtime member of the Board of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation, a former member of the Board of Visitors of West Point and is an Emeritus member of the Board of the West Point Association of Graduates.
In 2015, Bill was designated a Distinguished Graduate of West Point.
Mr. Murdy retired as Chair of Comfort Systems USA (Houston) in 2015. Comfort (NYSE:FIX) in a $4 billion company providing heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) installation, plumbing and electrical services in the commercial/industrial/institutional sector, countrywide.
Until 2012, he was both Chair and CEO of Comfort Systems, having joined the company in 2000 in those positions. Before joining Comfort, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Club Quarters (NYC), a privately owned, rapidly growing chain of membership hotels catering to corporate travelers to major cities in the U.S. and Europe. Prior to Club Quarters, he was Chair, President, CEO and Co-Founder of LandCare USA, Inc. (Houston). LandCare grew to be the country’s largest commercial landscape and tree services company before merging with ServiceMaster in 1999. Preceding LandCare, Mr. Murdy was President and Chief Executive Officer for 8 years of General Investment and Development (Boston), a large, privately held, diversified real estate investment, development and operating company, and before that, from 1981 to 1989, Co-Founder and Managing General Partner of the Morgan Stanley Venture Capital Fund (NYC) and President of its associated management company. From 1974 to 1981, he served in a number of positions including Chief Operating Officer of Pacific Resources (Honolulu), a then $1 billion company in the oil refining and gas utility sector.
He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School (1970) and West Point (1964). Mr. Murdy served in the United States Army from 1964 to 1974, including one year in the Dominican Republic (82nd Airborne) and two years in Vietnam (173rd Airborne). He was awarded three Bronze Stars, four Air Medals, the Army Commendation Medal and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. After three years teaching (Economics) at West Point, he left the active Army as a Major and served in the US Army Reserve.
He is married with two grown children and resides with his wife of 58 years, Mary Benbow Murdy, in New Canaan, Connecticut.