A new chief executive has emerged for Web Summit following the resignation of Paddy Cosgrave, whose comments on the Israel-Hamas conflict prompted some companies to withdraw from an upcoming conference.
Cosgrave drew criticism for a post on social media platform X relating to Israel’s deadly air strikes on the Gaza Strip in retaliation for Palestinian militant group Hamas’ mass killings in Israel on October 7 when he said, “war crimes are war crimes even when committed by allies”.
Cosgrave, who founded Web Summit, preferred to resign earlier this month, when his personal comments on the conflict was interpreted against him as the company prepares for Web Summit 2023 in Lisbon, one of the world’s largest tech conferences billed for November 13.
Katherine Maher, former Wikimedia Foundation CEO, who led the global nonprofit organization behind Wikipedia for five years as well as managed the messaging platform Signal Messenger, was appointed as the new leader for web summit.
Maher said in a blog post in a post announcing her appointment said Web Summit is entering its next phase.