Peter Currie (businessman)

Last updated
Peter L. S. Currie
Born1956 (age 67–68)
Nationality American
Alma mater Williams 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]

Contents

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]

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References

  1. ↑ Michelle Quinn (June 24, 1995). "Netscape Will Go Public With Stock Sale in August". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 2016-03-23. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
  2. ↑ New York Times (April 29, 1999). "Microsoft Lawyer Suggests Netscape-AOL Conspiracy". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 2016-04-06. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
  3. 1 2 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. 1 2 "IPad App Flipboard Gives VCs 10.5M Reasons To Love It". Wall Street Journal. July 22, 2010. Archived from the original on 2010-10-24. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 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. Archived from the original on 2011-08-09. 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. Archived from the original on 2016-03-19. 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. Archived from the original on 2015-05-27. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
  12. ↑ Michelle Quinn (August 15, 1995). "ON TECHNOLOGY -- Netscape Suffers Market Madness". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 2016-04-09. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
  13. ↑ "Officials to Sell Netscape Stock". The New York Times. Associated Press. March 1, 1996. Archived from the original on 2015-05-26. 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. Archived from the original on February 2, 2013. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
  15. ↑ Alan T. Saracevic (October 23, 2005). "Silicon Valley: It's where brains meet bucks". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 2012-11-22. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
  16. ↑ Chris Gaither and Alan Krauss (January 9, 2002). "Barksdale Closes Venture Fund". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2015-05-27. 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. Archived from the original on 2020-09-28. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
  19. ↑ "DEF 14A". www.sec.gov. Archived from the original on 2020-11-12. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
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