Job in china for Mrs O'Reilly

CHRYSS O'REILLY, wife of the Irish businessman Tony O'Reilly, has been appointed a non-executive director of Waterford Wedgwood UK, the British subsidiary of the crystal and fine china group, writes Alison Eadie.

Her role will be to promote next year's bicentenary of the death of Josiah Wedgwood, founder of the pottery company. There will be a string of celebrations, the highlight of which will be the display of the Frog Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The collection, made by Josiah Wedgwood for Catherine the Great of Russia, is coming to the UK before touring the US, Japan and Canada.

The 1,500-piece dinner service gained its name through the marshy ground on which St Petersburg and the Hermitage palace were built. Waterford Wedgwood will be making a series of limited editions of Frog Collection plates as part of the celebrations.

Mrs O'Reilly is the second wife of Dr O'Reilly, who is chairman of Heinz, chairman of Independent Newspapers (Ireland) and a big shareholder in Australian Provincial Newspaper Holdings and Newspaper Publishing, which publishes the Independent and Independent on Sunday.

Mrs O'Reilly is the wealthy daughter of the Greek shipping owner George Goulandris, and is reported to play an active part in the family business.

David Palmer, previously group chief executive of the Financial Times, is to become managing director of Independent Newspapers (Ireland), publisher of the Irish Independent, Evening Herald and Sunday Independent.

(Photograph omitted)