Tony O'Reilly

Sir Anthony John Francis O'Reilly (7 May 1936 to 18 May 2024) was an Irish businessman who also played international rugby union for Ireland, the British and Irish Lions and the Barbarians. In business he led the Independent News & Media Group from 1973 to 2009 and served as chief executive and chairman of the H.J. Heinz Company. He was the leading shareholder of Waterford Wedgwood and a founder and major supporter of The Ireland Funds, and he became a billionaire. His later years were marked by losses in an unsuccessful attempt to save the Waterford Wedgwood group and to stop Denis O'Brien taking control of Independent News & Media, and by 2014 AIB was pursuing him in the Irish courts for debts of 22 million euros. He held both Irish and British citizenship, was knighted for services to Northern Ireland, and died in a Dublin hospital at the age of 88.