Lord Currie: From Treasury 'wise man' to Labour guru
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Your support makes all the difference.Although there is no doubting his Labour credentials, David Currie first came to prominence thanks to John Major's government.
As one of the so-called "wise men" – independent advisers to the Treasury – he served Norman Lamont and Kenneth Clarke in the rocky days during and after the 1992 Black Wednesday crisis.
After relinquishing the post in 1995, he was ennobled on Tony Blair's recommendation as Lord Currie of Marylebone.
An informal adviser to Mr Blair, then Opposition leader (and fellow Islington resident), he was tipped at the time to win a frontbench Treasury post, but it never materialised as he continued to pursue his array of academic and business interests.
Arguably, the peer has had more influence at the heart of the Government than if he were formally representing it.
A strong supporter of membership of the European single currency, he published an academic paper on monetary union soon after Labour's 1997 landslide election victory. Today, it is widely regarded as the basis of Gordon Brown's five economic tests for euro membership.
He also produced a policy paper seen by the Treasury as the definitive blueprint, and defence of, the Government's controversial planned part-privatisation of London Underground.
David Currie, 55, was born in London and educated at Battersea Grammar School and Manchester University, which he left with a first-class degree in mathematics. But he then switched to economics, a decision that was to change the direction of his entire career.
After postgraduate spells in Birmingham and London, he joined Queen Mary's College in London as a junior lecturer and has remained in the capital since.
He has explained that he thrives in "the triangle ... where the business, academic and government worlds meet". He says: "That is in London and nowhere else."
In 1988 he moved to the London Business School, where he was variously deputy dean and director of its Centre for Economic Forecasting and of its Regulation Initiative (1995-2000).
After 12 years, he was appointed dean of City University's Business School, with a mission to turn it into "a world-class institution and the intellectual hub of this great international trading centre".
His wide-ranging business interests are reflected in a portfolio including directorships of Abbey National and the Joseph Rowntree investment trust.
Although his knowledge of his new media beat appears limited, he is familiar with regulatory issues. He was a member of the management board of Ofgem from February 1999, a founder member of the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority and an adviser on regulation of pharmaceutical prices.
In his new job, he will face the challenging task of bringing together five watchdogs under one regulatory umbrella, and will have to adjudicate between the rival and competing interests of the television, radio and telecommunications industries.
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