Palamon adds Currie to advisors

European mid-market firm Palamon Capital Partners has added telecoms, media and technology veteran Peter Currie to its board of advisers.

Currie, who sits on a number of boards including Sun Microsystems and Clearwire Corporation, began his career as a media and communications specialist at Morgan Stanley before being appointed as chief financial officer of McCaw Cellular Communications, a post he held until the firm’s sale to AT&T.

He subsequently became chief financial officer of internet start-up Netscape Communications, which was ultimately taken public and sold to AOL.

Peter Currie

Currie joins fellow media and telecoms heavyweight Lorenzo Pellicioli on Palamon’s board of advisers, who joined back in January this year. Pellicioli is the chief executive of Italian conglomerate De Agostini and was previously the chief executive of telephone directories business Seat Pagine Gialle, which was the subject of Italy’s largest ever leveraged buyout.

A spokesman for the firm suggested that there was no significance in the fact that the firm’s two recent advisory board hires are both media and telecoms specialists.

Palamon invests across several sectors, including media, healthcare, financial services and leisure.

Also on Palamon’s 12-strong advisory board is Ron Sandler, who was hired by the UK Government to run the newly privatised sub-prime casualty Northern Rock. Other members include economist Lord Eatwell and lawyer Simon Olswang.