Peter Currie (businessman)

Education and career

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

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.{{cite news |access-date= 2010-10-14 |archive-date= 2016-03-19 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160319100403/http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Tandem-Beats-Netscape-Meets-Street-Estimates-2816032.php |url-status= live |archive-date= 2015-05-27 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150527055129/http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/10/business/defying-a-juggernaut-netscape-maneuvers-for-position-in-a-microsoft-ruled-world.html |url-status= live |access-date= 2010-10-14 |archive-date= 2016-04-09 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160409160428/http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/ON-TECHNOLOGY-Netscape-Suffers-Market-Madness-3026512.php |url-status= live

Currie owned at least 37,500 shares of stock in Netscape which he sold in 1996, according to one report.{{cite news |archive-date= 2015-05-26 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150526155149/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/01/business/officials-to-sell-netscape-stock.html |url-status= live |archive-url= https://archive.today/20130202024314/http://articles.sfgate.com/1995-11-29/business/17819824_1_netscape-s-stock-internet-software-software-developers |url-status= live |archive-date= February 2, 2013 |access-date= 2010-10-14

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.{{cite news |access-date= 2010-10-14 |archive-date= 2012-11-22 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121122075513/http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Silicon-Valley-It-s-where-brains-meet-bucks-2600193.php |url-status= live

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.{{cite news |archive-date= 2015-05-27 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150527205514/http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/09/business/technology-briefing-internet-barksdale-closes-venture-fund.html |url-status= live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121007043340/http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=87505&privcapId=23090617&previousCapId=19153&previousTitle=Benchmark%20Capital |url-status= dead |archive-date= October 7, 2012 |archive-date= 2010-10-24 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101024122339/http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2010/07/22/ipad-app-flipboard-gives-vcs-105m-reasons-to-love-it/ |url-status= live

Currie's advice was sought by Facebook co-founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg in 2010.{{cite news

References

References

1. (15 February 2011). "Currie '74 Elected to Succeed Tang as Board President July 2012". Phillips Academy.
2. (19 July 2012). "New members join Andover Board of Trustees". Phillips Academy.
3. "SCHLUMBERGER N.V. - DEF 14A".
4. Alster, Norm. (2017-01-13). "Rebuilding Infrastructure May Be Profitable for the Very Rich". The New York Times.
5. "DEF 14A".