Thomas McMurray

Dr. Thomas McMurray serves as Venture Partners at The Aurora Funds. He is also the Chairman and Founder of Marine Ventures Foundation. When not working on the Foundation, he is an active, private investor in early stage technology and healthcare companies. From 1990-1998, Dr. McMurray was a general partner at Sequoia Capital. Located in Menlo Park, this CA-based venture capital firm invested in companies such as: Yahoo!, Network Appliance, Flextronics, Cisco Systems, Oracle, 3Com and Apple Computer. From 1987-1990, he worked for several venture-backed start-ups in Silicon Valley. Currently, Dr. McMurray serves on the Board of Visitors for the Duke University Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, NC and the advisory board of YouthNoise in Washington, DC. Dr. McMurray studied Mechanical Engineering, receiving his B.S.M.E. in 1976 and his M.S. in 1978 from Duke University. He received his Ph.D. in 1980 from Duke where his dissertation research "Turbulent Transport in Tidal Estuaries" was supported by the US Geological Survey. He was an Associate Professor and Associate Dean at the Pratt School of Engineering from 1985-1987. For five years, he was involved with the Flow Research Company in Seattle, WA, as a research scientist looking for Russian submarines in the North Atlantic. He is also an Angel Investor.