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Tony O'Reilly

1936–

 

Today, Tony O'Reilly is widely seen as one of the most remarkable Irishmen of his generation.  His extraordinary career, not just as chief executive officer of H.J. Heinz in Pittsburgh, but as the owner of a host of companies around the world, makes him one of the most notable Irishmen of all time.

      Born in Dublin during the difficult years of the Depression, he had to work hard for success from early on.  He makes no secret of his illegitimate birth, but it seems to have given him a drive that many of his Irish contemporaries lacked.  He never rested.  He was educated by the Jesuits at Belvedere, JAMES JOYCE'S [25] old school.  There he was a success, in the classroom and on the sports field.  At college he played rugby for Ireland on the international level.

      His first job was with the Irish Sugar Company, a state-owned and directed firm which was organized along old-fashioned, semi-socialist lines.  The Irish economy was not very developed then, and the Irish Sugar Company was among one of the country's larger employers.  In an economy where agriculture was a core business, the Irish Sugar Company was important.

      O'Reilly took over from a former military man who had run the business with an eye on the best interests of the small farmers who supplied the sugar beet to the factories.  O'Reilly promoted new management techniques and introduced new products.  In these early days his greatest coup was the rebranding of Irish butter as Kerrygold for the British and European markets, and it remains one of the most successful operations of its kind.

      Some of these ventures were done in association with Heinz, and in 1969, when O'Reilly was only thirty-three, he was head hunted for their London operations.  Four years later he was made president of the company, and in 1979 he was named CEO of Heinz.

      O'Reilly had undoubted business flair, but this was based not only on his great intelligence but also his immense charm.  'He has a million stories and tells them well,' according to Richard M. Cyert, a fellow director at Heinz.  'When you sit down to lunch with him, it's like going to a movie theatre for entertainment.'  O'Reilly's native-Irish wit was only part of his character.  He could also make hard decisions.

      He proved to be a charismatic leader of the company, among the most important in the United States even then, and he quickly revived its fortunes through the 1980s.  Investors on Wall Street were impressed.  He cut expenses, improved Heinz's market share, and expanded sales worldwide.  Profits rose rapidly.  The total shareholder returns averaged 31 per cent a year in the 1980s, which was twice the average stock index of 16.8 per cent.  He had his reward, for during the first six years of the 1990s he earned $182.9 million, placing him near the top of the world's highest paid executives.  But this was by no means all there was to Tony O'Reilly.

      Though he spent much of his time in the United States, he remained an Irishman.  Through an Irish investment company called Fitzwilton he bought into such international household names as Wedgewood China.  He bought up the Irish Independent newspapers, Ireland's largest newspaper chain with several national and provincial titles.  Newspaper interests were also developed in Australia and South Africa.  He owns the Sowetan, one of the most influential papers among black readers in the politically sensitive townships around Johannesburg.  This makes him an important player in the public life of South Africa, struggling to overcome the disadvantages of decades of apartheid.

      In Ireland he is also the major shareholder of Dromoland Castle, a country mansion hotel of world class, and through Arcon, an Irish oil-exploration company, he shares in the new fields being sought around the coasts of the British Isles.

      By the middle of the 1990s his investments were values at over $787 million, moving him up among the richest men in the world.  In any year he may travel up to three hundred thousand miles around the world on business matters.  Though always keen to improve and expand his interests, especially in the rapidly developing area of telecommunications, O'Reilly never lost sight of Ireland or her historical problems.

      In the United States he became one of the driving forces behind the establishment of the Ireland Funds, now an international trust with associations among Irish people not only in the United States, but also in Canada, Australia, and elsewhere.  The aim of the fund is to support the social and cultural infrastructure in Ireland, north and south, and in this way to promote peace and reconciliation, social development, and economic welfare.  Since its inception, the Ireland Funds have had a major impact providing seed money and support for countless projects, large and small.  In many ways they transformed aspects of Ireland.  In North America, businessmen of Irish descent saw a way of sharing their good fortune with a country which their ancestors had had to leave generations before, often in great poverty.  In Ireland this aid was much appreciated.

      Tony O'Reilly has emerged as a new kind of Irishman, deeply imbued with pride in his country and its achievements, keen that these should be improved upon and appreciated, but also a man whose influence reaches far beyond Ireland or the United States.  At home in Ireland or elsewhere, he and his family lead a hectic social life, which is all part of the life of modern businessmen of his stature.  Yet in a small country like Ireland, where social life was once lived on a less lavish scale, he has brought about a change of style which is widely influential.

      In financial circles in the United States and in Europe, he is a man widely respected for his achievements.  Upon his retirement from Heinz he was able to devote more of his time and energy to his own business interests.  These included not only those already in hand (like Waterford Wedgewood), but also new acquisitions, such as the London Independent in 1998.

      O'Reilly is also the sort of man from whom great surprises can be expected in the future.  He was even talked about as a possible president of Ireland.  Though this is a non-political office of honour, it would have been a final crown to his career, and some think a just tribute to his achievements.