THE NEWLY DEPARTED Chief Executive of Independent News and Media said today that he was making time for his family – and a holiday – after his surprise resignation from the company’s board.
Gavin O’Reilly stepped down as CEO and as an executive director of INM yesterday. While tensions had been running high because of a perceived bid by 22 per cent shareholder Denis O’Brien to take control of the direction of the company, the issue of O’Reilly’s seat at the head of the board had not been expected to come to crunch point until the June AGM.
Yesterday, however, O’Reilly said in a statement that it was time for him to “pursue new opportunities” and that the “shareholder tensions (at INM) were proving an unnecessary distraction for both me and the Company”. Vincent Crowley, a longtime employee at INM and most recently its Group Chief Operating Officer, took over as CEO with immediate effect.
Freelance journalist Vincent O’Dowd spoke to Gavin O’Reilly this morning and asked him about his plans for the future. O’Reilly would only reveal his very immediate plans – to have breakfast with his daughters, go see his family in London and then go on a holiday. He also said he was pleased that Vincent Crowley is to be his successor.
In an interesting turn today, INM re-released its press release which had confirmed the management moves yesterday. Yesterday, the release said that O’Reilly’s departure had been “unanimously approved by the Board of Directors”. Today, the statement has the word “unanimously” removed from it:
RTÉ News is reporting that it believes that directors Lucy Gaffney and Paul Connolly both voted against the deal which saw O’Reilly leave with an exit package. The terms and amount of O’Reilly’s financial handshake on departing the company is not known.
- additional reporting by Vincent O’Dowd
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