David Currie, Baron Currie of Marylebone

David Anthony Currie, Baron Currie of Marylebone (born 9 December 1946) is a British economist and a cross bench member of the House of Lords. Currie is Chair of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). which began operation on 1 April 2014.

As Dean of the Cass Business School from 2001 to 2007 he was the architect of its move to its current premises and its expansion and development.^[1]

He was the inaugural chairman of the Office of Communications (Ofcom), a position he held from 2002 to 2009. He was succeeded by Colette Bowe.^[2]

Following the News International phone hacking scandal, Currie was appointed on 20 July 2011 to the advisory panel of the Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the British press.^[3][4]

Education and Career

Currie was born in Streatham, south London, and attended Battersea Grammar School. He obtained a first class degree in mathematics at Manchester University and a master's degree in National Economic Planning at Birmingham University, after which he obtained a post as an economist with Hoare Govett. He took a position in 1972 as a lecturer at Queen Mary College, University of London, and progressed to an appointment as Professor of Economics. After that he spent 12 years at the London Business School and was appointed as Professor of Economics in 1988.^[5]

In 1992 he became one of the 'six wise men' advising the Conservative Government's Treasury Department on economic matters. On 1 October 1996 he was made a life peer and sits as a crossbench member of the House of Lords. His title was gazetted Baron Currie of Marylebone, of Marylebone in the City of Westminster.^[6][7]

In 2001 he was appointed Dean of the City University Business School. He secured a donation from the Sir John Cass Foundation and the following year the school changed its name to the Sir John Cass Business School, moved to larger premises, invested in new facilities and recruited academic staff to provide the new programmes.

In July 2002 the Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, appointed Currie to be the first Chairman of the newly created Office of Communications, Ofcom, which combined the responsibilities of five different previously existing regulators:

• the Broadcasting Standards Commission,
• the Independent Television Commission,
• the Office of Telecommunications (Oftel),
• the Radio Authority, and
• the Radiocommunications Agency.

Currie compared regulators to drains: "If you notice them, then there is a problem".

Jowell renewed his appointment in 2007 for a further two years. Currie's achievements during his chairmanship include the telecoms strategic review which led to the rapid unbundling of BT phone lines and using the open market to allocate spectrum via auctioning. In October 2004, when delivering the Fleming Memorial Lecture to the Royal Television Society, Currie warned UK broadcasters they faced a "volcanic eruption" of new technology which would bring "with it an unprecedented challenge for traditional linear television broadcasting".

In 2011, he published a report into reforms of certain aspects of procurement of equipment for the UK's Ministry of Defence.^[8] The proposals were used as the basis for Part 2 of the Defence Reform Act 2014.

On 16 April 2012 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of science by the City University.^[5]

In July 2012 Currie was appointed as Chairman-designate of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). which began operation on 1 April 2014. He set out his concept for the Authority in a lecture to the Law Society in November 2012. He stepped down from the chair of Semperian Investment Partners and directorships in BDO UK, the Royal Mail, IG Group and the London Philharmonic Orchestra to head up the CMA for a yearly salary of £185,000.[6]

Other appointments

Member of the Board of Governors of the Institute for Government
Director of the Dubai Financial Services Authority
Chair of Council, University of Essex

Publications

Currie has been author, joint author or editor of several publications on economic policies and systems:^[7]

• Currie (editor) (1985). Advances in Monetary Economics. London: Dover, N.H. : Croom Helm. ISBN 0709934432. 
• Goodhart, Currie and LLewellyn (1987). The Operation and Regulation of Financial Markets,. Macmillan. 
• Currie and Vines (1988). Macroeconomic Interactions between North and South. Cambridge University Press. 
• Currie and Levine (1993). Rules, Reputation and Macroeconomic Policy Co-ordination. Cambridge University Press. 
• Vines and Currie (1995). North-South Linkages and International Macroeconomic Policy. Cambridge University Press. 
• Currie (1997). The Pros and Cons of EMU (PDF). London: Economic Intelligence Unit. ISBN 0850589223. 
• Currie (1998). Will the Euro Work? The Ins and Outs of EMU. London: Economic Intelligence Unit. ISBN 0850589983. 

References

External links

• How OFCOM is run
• The international Centre for Financial Regulation