Peter Currie (businessman)

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Peter L. S. Currie
Born1956 (age 67–68)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materWilliams BA Econ/French
Stanford MBA 1982
OccupationBusiness executive

Peter L. S. Currie (born 1956) is an American business executive who was the chief financial officer for Netscape from 1995 to 1999.[1][2] Currie has been described by Wall Street Journal reporter Jessica Vascellaro as one of the "Silicon Valley wise men".[3] He was among the advisors to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about business matters in 2009.[4] He is an investor in Internet start-ups and serves on the boards of numerous firms.[5] He is president of Currie Capital and was a charter trustee of Phillips Academy;[6] from July 2012 to June 2020, he served as the president of the school's board of trustees.[7][8][9]

Education and career

Currie graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover in 1974[6] and earned a B.A. degree from Williams College in 1978 and an M.B.A. degree from Stanford University.[6] He worked in various capacities at Morgan Stanley including holding the title of Principal from 1982 to 1989.[6] He held various management positions at McCaw Cellular from 1989 to 1995 before joining Netscape.[6]

Netscape rise and fall

Netscape was a key player that "fueled the Internet revolution," according to a report in "The New York Times," and Currie was an executive vice president who worked under its CEO James L. Barksdale and founder Marc Andreessen.[10][11] Netscape developed the Secure Sockets Layer Protocol or SSL for securing online communication which is still widely used as well as JavaScript. Currie became its chief financial officer in 1995 [6] when the company went public.[12] He was Chief Administrative Officer at Netscape from July 1997 until March 1999.[6] In addition to financial management, Currie was responsible for human resources, information technology, facilities, and operations departments.[6]

Currie owned at least 37,500 shares of stock in Netscape which he sold in 1996, according to one report.[13] Netscape was valued at $5 billion in November 1995.[14] In 1999, Netscape was bought by America Online and became a holding company.[6]

Netscape was seen as the first Internet superstar which had a meteoric rise but the firm was undone by numerous forces including well-established software firms such as Microsoft. In a conference in 2005, Currie described how "hectic and crazy things were" during the tumultuous years in the mid 1990s.[15]

Other ventures

In 1999, Currie and Barksdale and others formed a venture capital firm called Barksdale Group to invest in business start-ups, and raised at least $180 million according to one report.[16] As an investor and consultant, he focused on the enterprise software sector of the business.[6] Currie invested in an Internet start-up called Flipboard in 2010.[5] Currie claims affiliations with Corsair Communications, Critical Path, Inkling, Listen.com, Kodak Imaging Network, Kontiki, IPVALUE Management, Oracle America, Tellme Networks, Zantaz, InfoSpace.com, Clearwire, CNET, Safeco, and Palamon Capital Partners.[6] He serves on the board of directors for oilfield services giant Schlumberger.[17][18] In 2016, Twitter released Currie from its board.[19]

Currie's advice was sought by Facebook co-founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg in 2010.[3]

References

  1. ^ Michelle Quinn (June 24, 1995). "Netscape Will Go Public With Stock Sale in August". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
  2. ^ New York Times (April 29, 1999). "Microsoft Lawyer Suggests Netscape-AOL Conspiracy". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
  3. ^ a b JESSICA E. VASCELLARO (March 3, 2010). "Facebook CEO in No Rush To 'Friend' Wall Street". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
  4. ^ "Yu, Zuckerberg and the Facebook fallout". Reuters. Apr 1, 2009. Archived from the original on April 3, 2009. Retrieved 2010-10-14. In a back-to-the-future move, former Netscape CFO Peter Currie will be the key adviser to Facebook about financial matters,
  5. ^ a b "IPad App Flipboard Gives VCs 10.5M Reasons To Love It". Wall Street Journal. July 22, 2010. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Executive profile (2010). "Currie Capital LLC". Bloomberg Businessweek. Archived from the original on October 7, 2012. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
  7. ^ Phillipian Staff (February 10, 2011). "Trustees Convene For Weekend Deliberations". The Philippian. Retrieved 2011-02-21.
  8. ^ "Currie '74 Elected to Succeed Tang as Board President July 2012". Phillips Academy. 15 February 2011. Archived from the original on 16 March 2013. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
  9. ^ "New members join Andover Board of Trustees". Phillips Academy. 19 July 2012. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
  10. ^ Chronicle Staff Report (July 23, 1997). "Tandem Beats, Netscape Meets Street Estimates". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
  11. ^ STEVE LOHR (November 10, 1997). "Defying a Juggernaut; Netscape Maneuvers for Position in a Microsoft-Ruled World". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
  12. ^ Michelle Quinn (August 15, 1995). "ON TECHNOLOGY -- Netscape Suffers Market Madness". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
  13. ^ "Officials to Sell Netscape Stock". The New York Times. Associated Press. March 1, 1996. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
  14. ^ HERB GREENBERG (November 29, 1995). "BUSINESS INSIDER -- How Do You Spell Powerful Bull Market? N-E-T-S-C-A-P-E / Also, Novato High takes lead again in stock contest". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
  15. ^ Alan T. Saracevic (October 23, 2005). "Silicon Valley: It's where brains meet bucks". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
  16. ^ Chris Gaither and Alan Krauss (January 9, 2002). "Barksdale Closes Venture Fund". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
  17. ^ "SCHLUMBERGER N.V. - DEF 14A". www.sec.gov. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
  18. ^ Alster, Norm (2017-01-13). "Rebuilding Infrastructure May Be Profitable for the Very Rich". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
  19. ^ "DEF 14A". www.sec.gov. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
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