Jim Murphy

James D. "Murph" Murphy, the Founder & CEO of Afterburner, Inc., has a unique and powerful mix of leadership skills in both the military and business worlds. Murphy joined the US Air Force where he learned to fly the F-15. He logged over 1,200 hours as an instructor pilot in the F-15 and accumulated over 3,200 hours of flight time in other high-performance aircraft. As the 116th Fighter Wing's Chief of Training for the Georgia Air National Guard, Murphy's job was to keep 42 combat-trained fighter pilots ready to deploy worldwide within 72 hours. As a flight leader, he flew missions to Central America, Asia, Central Europe, and the Middle East.

Prior to his service in the US Air Force, Murphy had a successful career in imaging equipment sales, where he helped increase his company's sales by 500%. Years later, he became Director of Sales for a small paint company. The concepts he developed and utilized in business and the US Air Force would become known as Flawless Execution. Applying Flawless Execution's continuous cycle of planning, briefing, executing, and debriefing, he increased his new employer's sales from $5 million to $52 million per year. Realizing that all companies and organizations could benefit from these same concepts, Murphy started Afterburner, Inc. in early 1996.

Through his leadership, Afterburner landed on Inc. Magazine's "Inc. 500 List" twice. Murphy has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Inc. Magazine, Newsweek, and Meetings & Conventions Magazine and has appeared on CNN, Fox News, and Bloomberg News. He was also named as one of Atlanta's top 50 entrepreneurs by Catalyst Magazine. To date, the Afterburner team of elite military professionals has led over one million executives, sales professionals, and businesspeople from every industry through Afterburner's Flawless Execution Model, and its unique, high-energy programs.

Murphy and Afterburner have shared the podium with notable speakers like President Bill Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, Marcus Buckingham, Colin Powell, J.W. Marriott Sr., and Terry Bradshaw. Murphy serves as a panel member of the League of Extraordinary Minds with business and self-improvement gurus such as Tony Robbins and Stephen Covey. He is the author of the groundbreaking books Business Is Combat and Flawless Execution through Harper Collins publishing and has spoken at many of the world's most notable business schools to include Harvard, Wharton, Cornell, Emory, Duke, and Fudan University in Shanghai, China.