GREEN BAY — Mark Murphy obviously knew the day was coming. Now, the retiring Green Bay Packers team president/CEO officially has the date.
The club announced Friday that the annual shareholders’ meeting at Lambeau Field has been set for July 25 — and with it, the end of Murphy’s nearly 18-year presidency after taking over for Bob Harlan January 2008.
Like Harlan did in 2006, Murphy is set in July to turn 70, the team’s mandatory retirement age. The shareholders’ meeting will mark the official transfer of leadership from Murphy to 54-year-old Ed Policy, who was chosen to succeed Murphy last June.
“I look forward to Ed taking over leadership of the Packers,” Murphy said in a statement released by the team. “He’s been a tremendous asset to the organization and I’m confident he will be an excellent steward in the role.”
The shareholders meeting will be two days after the team kicks off training camp with its first full-squad practice on July 23.
Speaking at the annual NFL Meetings in West Palm Beach, Fla., in March, Murphy reflected on his tenure, joking that unlike the league’s 31 owners, he got to rub elbows with the super-wealthy while running the NFL’s only publicly-owned franchise.
“I’m very fortunate, I’m blessed. My wife (Laurie) always says I’m an owner without the money. A ‘ph-owner’ is what she calls it,” Murphy said. “I think it’s one of the very best jobs in all of professional sports.
“[The way] I look at it, Bob Harlan left it in great shape for me, and hopefully I’m doing the same for Ed. Hopefully Ed will have an 18-year run like Bob and I did.”
Policy is the son of former San Francisco 49ers president/CEO Carmen Policy, who led one of the NFL’s most successful franchises from 1991 through 1997 and served as the Cleveland Browns president from 1998 to 2004.
Policy, the team’s chief operating officer and general counsel, joined the organization in August 2012 before being promoted to his current role in January 2018.
Policy’s role with the Packers as Murphy’s right-hand man included not only the club’s legal affairs but also overseeing the team’s communications, marketing and fan engagement, sales and business development, security and development and hospitality departments.
He also led the team’s development of the Titletown district, the entertainment and business district across from Lambeau Field.
Before coming to Green Bay, Policy spent nine years as an executive with the Arena Football League, including a stint as commissioner, as well as working as an executive consultant with the NFL in 2009 and 2010.
“Obviously, he’ll do very well,” Murphy said. “He’s been sensitive that he wants to make the transition as smooth as possible.
“He’s got a great football background, extremely intelligent, respected throughout the building and across the league. He’s been involved in almost every aspect of our organization. It’s not going to be a difficult transition for him.”
Murphy, meanwhile, will transition into a retirement in which he’ll split his time between his home in the Green Bay suburb of De Pere and his vacation spot in Door County, where he purchased the nearby Maxwelton Braes Golf Course, an 18-hole course just south of Baileys Harbor, about 60 miles north of Lambeau Field.
Murphy bought the course in 2022 for $1.04 million, and while he may not be booking tee times, he intends to be “a little more involved” in the day-to-day operations of the course — knowing he’d need something else to occupy his time sooner or later.
He just didn’t realize how soon the “later” would come.
“I knew the [mandatory retirement age] rule when I took the job, but it was always way down the road. But it does come quickly,” Murphy said. “But I think it’s a good sign that time goes fast. It means you’re enjoying your work.
“There’s so many good people in the organization. I think we all have a sense that we’re very fortunate to be working for such a unique organization.”
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