During the 1980s he was Industrial Advocate, Auckland Employers Association Inc. In 1990 he became Executive Director of the Newspaper Publishers Association of NZ.  During this period he also served as Chairman of the NZ Advertising Standards Authority. In 2000 he was appointed Head of Employment Policy and Communication at Westpac Bank in Sydney before returning to New Zealand to his role at Business NZ.

He has an M.A. Hons in History from Auckland University, and has attended Stanford University and the Macquarie Graduate School of Management.

Phil O’Reilly is chair of the Commercialisation of Research Action Group and the Massey University Business Advisory Group and is joint chair of the Manufacturing Action Group and the Workplace Health & Safety Council.

Phil is a member of the Growth & Innovation Advisory Board, the Ministerial Advisory Group on Trade, Hui Taumata Trust, the Maori Workforce Development Trust, the Workplace Productivity Reference Group, Business Capability Partnership Steering Committee, Skill New Zealand, and the Advisory Committee on Statistics, and is New Zealand’s Employer Delegate to the International Organisation of Employers and the International Labour Conference.