2. Chris Murray: City Manager, City of Hamilton

By Larry Di Ianni, former Mayor

Any city manager has influence by virtue of position. A talented manager, like Chris Murray, transcends even that public role.
Required skills include, tenacity, diplomacy and most importantly, a yearning for success. Chris possesses these in spades.
He hails from the East Coast and lives in Hamilton’s sleepiest suburb, Dundas. He has risen meteorically in the city by virtue of hard-work and successfully negotiating the biggest, most complex, politically per- ilous, but publically beneficial city project, the Red Hill Valley Parkway.
On the surface he is a quintessential bureaucrat: quiet, efficient, diplomatic, resourceful and pragmatic. In a room of ‘suits’ or political ‘egos’, Chris Murray would not be the first one your eyes might gravitate to.
Yet, once he speaks; and once he applies his problem-solving skills to any project, he will be the one you remember and admire.
And that is what gives Chris Murray his influence even beyond his position as Hamilton’s chief staffer. His interventions are always made to solve problems and remove obstacles.
Chris has also not shied away from tough decisions, especially those that challenge organizational intransigence, workplace malaise, and fiscal challenges. Hamilton will need his skills to implement future complex projects like the LRT.