St. John Anthony O'Reilly, generally Tony O'Reilly, Junior (born 1966 in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

) is a businessman with Irish and Australian citizenship, the third son and sixth child of former Heinz Chairman & CEO and Irish media magnate

Tony O'Reilly Sir Anthony John Francis O'Reilly (7 May 1936 – 18 May 2024) was an Irish businessman and international rugby union player. He was known for his try scoring in rugby, his involvement in the Independent News & Media Group, which he led from ...

and Australian Susan Cameron. He is the former CEO of the Irish-based oil and gas exploration company

Providence Resources Providence Resources is an Irish oil and gas exploration company. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and the Irish Stock Exchange. Its primary activities are the exploration and development of hydrocarbons offshore Ireland and the United ...

PLC and the former chairman and CEO of Arcon, an Irish-based zinc mining company. He is currently the CEO of UK and Ireland focused geo

energy transition An energy transition (or energy system transformation) is a major structural change to energy supply and consumption in an energy system. Currently, a transition to sustainable energy is underway to limit climate change. Most of the sustainab ...

company dCarbonX. He is married for the second time, with three children and three stepchildren and lives in Malta.

Early life and career

He was born, the youngest of six, and one of triplets, in 1966, in Dublin, and brought up in Ireland, at Castlemartin in

County Kildare County Kildare () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the Local gove ...

, and Fox Chapel,

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

, US. After a difficult time at

Harrow School Harrow School () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English boarding school for boys) in Harrow on the Hill, Greater London, England. The school was founded in 1572 by John Lyon (school founder), John Lyon, a local landowner an ...

, he moved to London at the age of fifteen for 6 months, living in a bedsit flat for £25 a week, working at a supermarket and with a landscape gardener. He then returned to the family, later finishing secondary education at Clongowes Wood College and then studying economics and history at

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

, with an exchange year at the London School of Economics. At Brown University he was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.

Career

He started work at Morgan Grenfell but was let go after less than three weeks when his division was closed. After six months looking for a job, Tony O'Reilly Senior brought him on a business trip, on which he was speaking at the international convention of Coopers & Lybrand partners, after which he worked for that company for two and a half years working in the New York corporate finance department. In 1992, he relocated to Ireland, to work for mining company Arcon (part-owned by his father), responsible for Planning and Corporate Development for the Galmoy Zinc Mine. He was promoted and was CEO from 1997 to 2000, and chairman from 2001 to 2005. In 2005, he drove the merger of Arcon with Lundin Mining, a Canadian-based mining company, and joined their board. He was appointed a director of Waterford Wedgwood, dominated by his father, in 1998, and deputy CEO of the division of famous ceramics brand

Wedgwood Wedgwood is an English China (material), fine china, porcelain and luxury accessories manufacturer that was founded on 1 May 1759 by the potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood and was first incorporated in 1895 as Josiah Wedgwood and Sons L ...

from 1 January 2001. He was made CEO of Wedgwood soon after. At the same time, he was a director of Independent News and Media, Providence, Fitzwilton Plc and Lockwood Financial Group . He moved from Wedgwood in September 2005 to take up the role as CEO of Providence, which he had founded in 1997 by divesting the hydrocarbon assets out of Arcon. In 2005, O'Reilly led the listing of Providence ion the Alternative Investments Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange.The (Daily) Telegraph, London, 9 May 2006: "Market profile: Tony O'Reilly Junior" Over the next 14 years, Providence was involved in oil and gas exploration and production in Ireland, the UK, US and Nigeria. The company is in partnership with a number of international firms including ExxonMobil, Chevron, Transocean and Petronas. In December 2019, after nearly 15 years at the helm, he stepped down as CEO to pursue other opportunities.

Philanthropy

O'Reilly supports the work of The Ireland Funds and is a trustee of the

O'Reilly Foundation The O'Reilly Foundation is a personal charitable trust set up in 1998 by media magnate, and former CEO of Heinz, Sir Anthony "Tony" O'Reilly. Its stated function is the funding of educational projects; the two main work areas in its active peri ...

Personal life

He became engaged to Robin O'Reilly, née Rafford, whom he met while she was an advertising planner with Peter Owens, in November 1992,New York City, US: New York Times, Style Section, 8 November 1992, retrieved at nytimes.com (via search) 13 April 2008 and they married mid-1993. Mrs O'Reilly, a graduate of Cornell, Columbia (for an MBA), subsequently studied at the

Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) is a not-for-profit medical professional and educational institution, which is also known as RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences. It was established in 1784 as the national body ...

, qualifying as a doctor, and later specialising in

oncology Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis, and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's Etymology, etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγ ...

. She also became a major figure on the Dublin social scene, often seen with her sister-in-law Alison Doody. The couple divorced in 2006, and in mid-2007 Mrs O'Reilly's Dublin home was sold, with a statement saying she planned to move to the UK to work in the art industry. He then divided his time between Dublin and weekends in

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

. Two of his children, lived in London, while his eldest son lives in Malta. He became engaged to Michele Clements (née Calascione) in August 2007, and married for the second time on 4 July 2008, at

Lake Como Lake Como ( , ) also known as Lario, is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy. It has an area of , making it the third-largest lake in Italy, after Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore. At over deep, it is one of the deepest lakes in Europe. ...

in Italy, with a reception at the Villa Pizzo. His children, and his new wife's three children, Josh, Sasha and Alana also, attended, along with family and friends. Born Calascione, Ms Clements is the second of four children of Alfred Calascione and Stephanie De Cesare, and was previously married.

Sources

* London, The Daily Telegraph
Business Profile: His Father's Providence
24 July 2006, Topaz Amoore

References

External links

dCarbonx
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oreilly, Tony, Jr. 1966 births Living people Businesspeople from County Dublin Cornell University alumni O'Reilly Foundation Tony, Jr. Waterford Wedgwood People educated at Clongowes Wood College People educated at Harrow School Brown University alumni