A mobile fortune - Siobhan Creaton

He is now officially Ireland’s richest man, having overtaken the legendary Tony O’Reilly. He owns hugely lucrative mobile phone networks in Ireland and the Caribbean, where his Digicel company sponsors West Indies cricket. He recently ousted Tony O’Reilly from control over Irish Independent newspapers (which owns the English Independent as well). He bought a blocking stake in Aer Lingus to deny Michael O’Leary’s Ryanair the chance of a takeover. Little wonder that Forbes magazine recently profiled Denis O’Brien in its series on the world’s most important billionaires.

Now Siobhn Creaton, formerly the experienced finance correspondent of the Irish Times and author of Aurum’s acclaimed and constantly-selling book on Ryanair, has written the first biography of this fascinating, powerful and extremely wealthy man. Not only one of the most powerful men in the Irish economy, but also with a business empire stretching to the Caribbean, O’Brien is a controversial character fast becoming a global player in the telecoms industry. Creaton has conducted dozens of new interviews with individuals from all parts of O’Brien’s empire, and got very close to the man himself. An obvious bestseller in Ireland, it is also a portrait of one of the new generation of business tycoons who now command the world stage.

Siobhn Creaton is the author of two previous books, Ryanair (also published by Aurum) and Panic at the Bank. She lives in Dublin.