Murray Eldridge

Business experience

Murray Eldridge is a Chartered Director and has been a member of the IoD for over 15 years. He has 40 years of international experience in shipping, offshore oil & gas, telecoms, water and international consulting. A board level operator for the last 20 years, he has held marketing, sales, strategy and commercial roles as executive director as well as managing director and non-executive roles with companies such as Smit International, British Telecom, Cable & Wireless and Global Crossing. Murray also has extensive experience in setting up and managing international joint ventures and alliances in the UK, China, Japan and Indonesia.

As a consultant he has worked with Philips, Coca Cola, Alcatel, Consolis, independent oil companies, engineering companies, manufacturers, desalination companies and the Royal College of Defence Studies among others. He has also undertaken external board evaluations for FTSE listed company under the UK Corporate Governance Code. Murray’s involvement with companies encompasses start-ups through to blue chip, global leaders and he remains a shareholder and advisor to the desalination company he helped found in 2005. His experience includes working through three major sector crashes in three different industries occasioning major strategic and organisational change programmes.

Professional credentials and training experience

Murray is a fellow of the Institute of Directors, fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and holds an MBA. He also received the prestigious Magnolia Award for his work in China – only the second British businessman to receive the award at the time. Murray works with university business schools (Leeds, Salford and the Open University), has been a keynote speaker at conferences and seminars and led webinars on leadership and performance for the Open University Business School.

He is the author of Leading High Performance (Crimson Publishing, 2014) and a qualified British Rowing sports coach. In his capacity as IoD course leader Murray has worked with organisations that include: Costain, Wessex Water, Alstom, KBR, UKAS, Centrica, Chief Fire Officers Association, Rural Energy Agency, among others. His broad and deep involvement in a number of different industries, combined with his current water company activity, ensure he brings interesting and current perspectives to the IoD courses he facilitates.