Michael Murray

Michael R. "Mike" Murray is the president and director/president-treasurer of Crystal Springs Foundation, the family foundation he created with his wife, Joyce Murray, after leaving Microsoft. Public filings list Crystal Springs Foundation as a Seattle-based 501(c)(3) private foundation formed in 2001, with Michael R. Murray as president.

Murray began his career after studying engineering at Stanford University, where he created a concentration spanning product design, industrial engineering, and business. He later returned to Stanford for an MBA and entered the personal computer industry. At Apple Computer, he led startup marketing for the Macintosh product line and reported directly to Steve Jobs; the Computer History Museum describes him as Apple Marketing Manager for the Macintosh.

He joined Microsoft in 1989 to manage the networking software business and later became Microsoft's first vice president of Human Resources and Administration, a role he held until leaving in 1999. Sources note that he worked directly with Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.

After Microsoft, Murray shifted toward hands-on philanthropy and impact investing. He co-founded Unitus in 2000/2001 to accelerate microfinance institutions and later became a founding investor in Unitus Seed Fund, now Unitus Ventures. He has also served as co-founder and past chairman of Unitus Labs and chairman of Unitus Investment Management.

• Murray's work centers on market-based poverty alleviation: he has emphasized self-reliance, microfinance, and scalable models rather than one-time aid.
• He has described his philanthropy as "more aligned to a venture fund than a grantmaking foundation," because he wanted to be proactive, hands-on, and focused on a small number of projects he could know deeply.
• Crystal Springs Foundation has supported children's issues, microfinance development, and humanitarian services with large, multi-year grants.
• Through Unitus Ventures, Murray backed seed-stage companies serving low-income consumers in India. Unitus described the target as "for-profit scalable companies" providing economic self-reliance, education, and basic necessities to people at the base of the economic pyramid.
• Murray said of Unitus Ventures: "Our next effort is to demonstrate the efficacy of using equity investing in scalable for-profit companies that serve the same low-income customers."
• Capria identified Murray and Crystal Springs Foundation as active impact investors in India-focused early-stage impact venture funds, including Unitus Equity Fund, Elevar Equity Fund II, and Unitus Ventures.