The second largest shareholder in Independent News & Media (INM), telecoms magnate Denis O'Brien - whose Digicel mobile phone company has South Pacific interests - yesterday welcomed the appointment of Gavin O'Reilly as the group's new chief executive officer.

And O'Brien paid tribute to outgoing chief executive Sir Anthony O'Reilly as he was appointed to the post of President Emeritus of the group.

In a statement issued yesterday, O'Brien said: "I would like to thank Tony O'Reilly for his long-standing contribution to the company. I welcome Tony as President Emeritus and also take this opportunity to wish him well in his retirement."

Changes

O'Brien said he believed the changes announced yesterday "represent the beginning of a new era at Independent News and Media and one that brings with it challenges which cannot be underestimated, recognising that INM operates in an industry which is experiencing rapid change".

"Clearly, the first task of the new members of the board will be to apprise themselves of the current financial and operational position, and I hope the new board will bring forward a series of wide-ranging decisions which will, in time, result in a stronger company, soundly structured to meet the challenges and avail of the many opportunities. In that regard I wish the new board well in their prime objective of restoring shareholder value for all shareholders, stakeholders and staff.

"I am confident that these changes will strongly position the group to meet the immediate financing challenges in the current economic climate."

O'Brien has been the most successful of the businessmen who came to prominence in the Celtic Tiger years. In addition to his 25pc shareholding in INM, his business interests include mobile phone companies and radio stations.

Born in Co Cork in 1958, O'Brien was educated at UCD and Boston College, from which he graduated in 1982 with an MBA in corporate finance.

O'Brien scored his first major success in 1989 when his Communicorp group received a licence for its Dublin radio station 98FM. Communicorp is now one of the major players in Irish commercial radio, owning Today FM and Newstalk. The company owns radio stations in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Finland and Ukraine.

However, it was winning the second mobile phone licence in 1995 that propelled O'Brien into the big time. His ESAT Digifone consortium was selected to compete with Eircom's Eircell. O'Brien sold the company to BT for $2.4bn in 2000, netting him ...€317m.

O'Brien has since built a new mobile phone business, Digicel, which has over six million subscribers.

Starting in Jamaica in 2001, Digicel has operations in Haiti, Honduras, Trinidad, Bermuda, Panama, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Vanuatu and Fiji. Independent/Pacific Media Watch, 14/03/09.