Gwamcee News
Katherine Maher’s appointment comes after Paddy Cosgrave resigned as CEO over his comments on the Israel-Hamas war.
Katherine Maher, the former boss of Wikipedia, has been appointed as CEO of the leading European technology conference Web Summit.
Her appointment comes after Paddy Cosgrave, a co-founder of Web Summit, stepped down following a backlash over his accusations that Israel is committing “war crimes” and breaching international law.
Web Summit said in a statement Maher was selected by the board to lead the company through the transition period and added that she has “the ability to bridge the worlds of technology, humanity, and dialogue”.
Maher, 40, led the Wikimedia Foundation, the global nonprofit behind Wikipedia, for five years and is also chair of messaging platform Signal Messenger.
“I am excited to join Web Summit, because I believe in Web Summit’s mission to connect people and ideas that change the world,” Maher said, according to the company’s statement.
She will lead this year’s Web Summit conference, scheduled from November 13 to 16 in Lisbon, Portugal.
The annual conference attracts many of the tech world’s top names. But following Cosgrave’s comments on the Israel-Gaza war, some companies withdrew their participation.
