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.

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 expanded programmes.

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.

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.

[1] Currie has formerly served on the boards of Abbey National (2001–2002), BDO International (2008–2012), Royal Mail (2009–2012), IG Group (2010–2012), and as Chairman of Semperian (2008–2012), as well as the London Philharmonic Orchestra (2007–2012) and the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust (1989–2002).

He stepped down from all of his UK-based commercial directorships in 2012 to avoid conflicts of interest,[7] taking a yearly salary from the CMA of between £180,000 and £184,999, making him one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector as of September 2015.