Ireland“s Independent News & Media Plc said Tony O“Reilly would take up the role of executive chairman when chief executive Liam Healy steps down on 1 May.
O“Reilly, Ireland“s first billionaire, …
Ireland“s Independent News & Media Plc said Tony O“Reilly would take up the role of executive chairman when chief executive Liam Healy steps down on 1 May. O“Reilly, Ireland“s first billionaire, owns some 30% of the company and is currently non-executive chairman. The move follows O“Reilly“s retirement from the post of chief executive officer with global food group H J Heinz in 1998, a position he held for nearly 30 years. “Tony has always been closely involved as chairman (of Independent News) but now he can formally devote more time,” a senior source close to the company said. Independent also said it had appointed Merrill Lynch to advise on a proposed flotation of its iTouch International mobile information service company. The source said the floation was just one of many moves in the pipeline, now that O“Reilly was “in the saddle”. The source described the 63-year-old“s management style as “big picture” and cited the international expansion of Independent News and other O“Reilly companies such as ceramics and glassware group Waterford Wedgwood and mining company Arcon International Resources as examples. O“Reilly – under whose reign Heinz“s market capitalization grew to US$ 21 billion from US$ 900 million – first invested in Independent News in 1973 and was instrumental in expanding the business into South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. The media group prints 12 million newspapers a week worldwide. In Britain it publishes London-based daily The Independent and the Independent on Sunday. Under O“Reilly“s chairmanship Waterford Wedgwood has also cast its net beyond Ireland – to continental Europe with the acquisition of German crystal company Rosenthal AG and to the US with last year“s buyout of cookware maker All Clad Inc. for US$ 110 million. His mining group Arcon is currently developing the Galmoy lead and zinc mine in the Irish midlands – Ireland“s first new mining operation in 22 years. The company said it had also appointed Ivan Fallon, chief executive of Independent News & Media Holdings in South Africa, as executive chairman of London-based iTouch International.