Chief financial officer to retire after 25 years working at Yale

Stephen Murphy ’87, who has worked in the Yale administration since 2001 and as the University’s chief financial officer and vice president for finance since 2015, will retire from his position in June.

Leo Nyberg & Isobel McClure

1:47 am, Jan 13, 2026

Staff Reporters

Yale News

Stephen Murphy ’87, the University’s chief financial officer and vice president for finance who has held the post for more than 10 years, will retire in June, University President Maurie McInnis and Senior Vice President for Operations Geoff Chatas announced in a statement on Monday. 

Murphy’s impending retirement comes amid administrators’ efforts to tighten budgets across the University — which could include shrinking the University’s workforce through layoffs — as Yale braces for the tax on its endowment investment income to increase from 1.4 to 8 percent in July.  

“It’s been an honor and a privilege to work alongside so many thoughtful, talented, kind, and principled people who are trying each day to make the world a better place through research, teaching, preservation, and practice,” Murphy wrote in an email to the News. “I have loved my time serving as CFO for Yale University. It’s the best job at Yale and the best job in higher education, at least for me.” 

Murphy graduated from Yale College in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He noted that as a student unable to afford college without financial aid, he was “grateful to have had the opportunity to work toward making undergraduate and graduate education more affordable to more families” later in his career as Yale’s chief financial officer. 

In their statement, McInnis and Chatas praised Murphy for his role implementing reforms which they said “lay much of the foundation” for Yale’s financial management. 

“During his tenure at Yale, Steve has provided both steady and dynamic leadership of the university’s finances. He has worked with multiple generations of administrators to advance our academic mission through financial strategy, insight, services, and advice,” the university leaders’ joint statement said. 

“With tremendous care, Steve has helped steer the university through many challenging moments and provided important guidance to me in my role as provost,” Provost Scott Strobel wrote in an email to the News, noting that Murphy’s work “will benefit students, faculty, and staff for years after his retirement.” 

Murphy began working at Yale in 2001 as the Yale Office of Cooperative Research’s director of finance and administration, according to his profile on a University webpage.