Murphy, a former chief executive at Virgin Group will take over later this month, when the current chair, Sir Anthony Jolliffe steps down.
Murphy has held a number of executive and non-executive roles, and is currently chairman at Ovo Energy Group. He succeeded Sir Richard Branson has chief executive of Virgin in 2005, and held this post for six years.
Commenting on his appointment, Murphy says he sees Smart Pension as “a tech business first and foremost” with the potential to go beyond pensions, and expand overseas.
He adds: “Technology is already dramatically disrupting the financial services industry. There is already a lot of international interest in Smart, that demonstrates how good its technology is.”
Smart Pension’s chief executive Andrew Evans thanked Jolliffe for his contribution to the company. Smart has made a number of higher profile appointments in recent months. These include senior appointments from The Pensions Regulator, B&CE and Nest.