Author Description

Henry Kissinger calls him "Renaissance Man". For fifteen years Tony O'Reilly has been one of the most successful executives in America, the highest paid man in the country in 1992 with $75 million. When he took over as CEO of the century-old H.J. Heinz Company in 1979, the company's value was less than $800 million. Today it is over $9 billion, with fewer shares in issue - and over 90 percent of the increase created during the O'Reilly years, the reign of the first non-Heinz to become chairman. It was a stock market miracle, but for those who knew Tony O'Reilly, the turnaround did not come as a surprise.