Ambassador Michael Patrick Murphy, KMOb,

Michael Patrick Murphy, KMOb, is Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta to the Kingdom of Lesotho, and Permanent Representative of the Order to the African Union. Born in the United States, he brings to his diplomatic service a career spanning the Armed Forces, financial services, real estate development, large-scale construction, and risk management.

Ambassador Murphy was received into the Order as a Knight of Magistral Grace in the American Association in 2011, and made his Promise of Obedience in 2025. He has served the Order’s works of charity in his local diocese and in several projects across Africa. As the Order’s inaugural Ambassador to the Kingdom of Lesotho and its Permanent Representative to the African Union, he has engaged with Heads of State and Government across the fifty-five Member States of the African Union, and has negotiated four bilateral agreements between the Order and African States in furtherance of its humanitarian mission.

He is Chairman of the Friends of the Order of Malta in Africa, and serves on the boards of The Haile Selassie Fund for Ethiopian Children (USA) and The Citadel Catholic Endowment Board (USA).

A service-disabled veteran of the United States Army, Ambassador Murphy has also served as a Public Trust Member on the U.S. Department of State Foreign Service Promotion Board.

In his professional life, Ambassador Murphy has founded several enterprises. As Chief Executive Officer of Global Building Solutions (GBS), he led the company’s growth from a regional firm into an international design and construction enterprise, delivering projects across the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Among these was a US$560 million contract for Workers’ Accommodation Villages housing 45,000 people for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. He serves today as Senior Advisor and Board Member for Africa and the Middle East to firms specialising in business advisory and corporate intelligence.