Katherine Maher has been appointed the new CEO of Web Summit following Paddy Cosgrave’s resignation last week. 

In a statement today, Ms Maher said she was joining the company because she “believes in Web Summit’s mission to connect people and ideas that change the world”. 

“Our immediate task at hand is returning the focus to what we do best: facilitating discussions among everyone involved in technological progress,” she said. 

Katherine Maher delivers a speech at Web Summit conference in Lisbon, 5/11/2019. Photo: Pedro FiAºza/NurPhoto

Former CEO Mr Cosgrave resigned last week following backlash to comments he made about the current escalating violence in Israel and Palestine. 

He criticised western Governments for not condemning the Israeli Government, who have cut off most water and energy supplies into Gaza following an attack by Hamas. 

“War crimes are war crimes even when committed by allies, and should be called out for what they are,” he said. 

Several companies pulled out of the upcoming conference in Lisbon, including Google, Amazon and Meta. 

Mr Cosgrave still reportedly owns roughly 80% shares in Manders Terrace Ltd., the parent company of Web Summit. 

Web Summit 'entering its next phase'

Ms Maher said his comments “overshadowed” the purpose of Web Summit. 

“Today Web Summit is entering its next phase,” she said. 

“In two weeks’ time our team will bring up to 70,000 people together in Lisbon to enhance meaningful connections and enable dialogue to continue - and to help you shape the future.” 

Born in Connecticut, Ms Maher is the current chair of the Signal Foundation, a non-profit organisation that aims to “protect free expression and enable secure global communication through open-source privacy technology”. 

She was previously executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, best known as the hosting platform for Wikipedia.