User talk:Plwhit57

Mayor BJ Murphy
Born in Kinston, NC, BJ Murphy is the son of Buster Murphy and Diane Murphy and the late Benita Murphy. He graduated from Kinston High School in 1998 then attended Lenoir Community College. After a year at LCC, Murphy transferred to East Carolina University where he received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. While there he was a Senator in the Student Government Association and officer in the Society for the Advancement of Management.

Murphy’s abilities and fresh ideas immediately appealed to local businesses. While still in college, he worked as an intern at Pride of Kinston, which is responsible for downtown revitalization and a small business incubator, and worked part time at the Community Council for the Arts as the Marketing and Public Relations Coordinator. At Pride he developed a downtown building inventory and made appearances on local TV shows to promote downtown Kinston. At the CCA he marketed the Arts Center events to the entire community and developed some web-based marketing strategies.

His capacity for performance under pressure soon landed him a job as manager of The Broken Eagle restaurant on Herritage Street, where he reorganized the staff to increase maximum customer satisfaction, and introduced new buying and marketing strategies to reduce expenses while attracting a large customer base.

During this time, Murphy married Jessica Barwick, a former Miss Kinston-Lenoir County, whom he had dated for five years. Today, the couple has two daughters, Gracyn and Kathryn.

His success after two years at The Broken Eagle soon caught the attention of the city’s business leaders. They recruited Murphy to become executive director of Pride of Kinston. While at Pride, Murphy gained unique insight into the problems of small businesses, and developed strategies to counter those problems. He had a major role in the development of the city’s small business incubator, created the Sand in the Streets concert, and helped re-organize the Pride board and committees.

The insight Murphy gained while leading Pride resulted in his decision to run for mayor of Kinston in 2005. Despite his opponent’s popularity (he previously served three, four year terms) and experience, voters responded enthusiastically to Murphy’s candidacy. However, the newcomer lost the race by a scant 300 votes in a hard-fought race.

Murphy’s continuing involvement with the city has given him invaluable insight into the workings of municipal government, and the tools to make it better. Murphy earns a living as an Independent Associate & Group Benefits Specialist with LegalShield and IDShield. As a Business to Business (B2B) certification trainer, he is responsible for training the professional salesforce in eastern NC.

In November 2009, Murphy was elected as the youngest mayor in Kinston’s history. He’s been selected as the Young Professional of the Year, Top 20 Under 40 and part of the inaugural East Carolina University Top 40 Under 40 class. He serves on numerous boards in his official capacity as mayor, but he also serves on the advisory board of Wharton Gladden, a real estate banking boutique located in Winston-Salem, NC.