Technology conference Web Summit has named Katherine Maher, the former head of the Wikimedia Foundation, as its new chief executive officer CEO, replacing co-founder Paddy Cosgrave.
Europe’s biggest tech event, which begins on November 13, has had weeks of turmoil after Cosgrave’s social media posts about the Israel-Hamas war initiated waves of investors and companies to pull out. Cosgrave resigned as CEO on October 21.
Maher has held several roles at the intersection of the tech industry and civil society, including five years in charge of the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that runs Wikipedia. Web Summit in a release on Monday said it had also named the entrepreneur Damian Kimmelman as a non-executive board member.
According to most recent public filings, Cosgrave stepped down from the board but remains the bulk shareholder of the firm behind Web Summit. His two co-founders wrote personally to board directors calling for Cosgrave to sell his shares due to the continued risk his association posed to Web Summit, Bloomberg News reported last week.
