Catherine Maher, former executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, has become the new CEO of Web Summit.
“The Web Summit connects and connects thousands of innovators from all corners of the world,” he said in a video posted on the social networking site X/Twitter.
“Thank you and see you soon,” he said in Portuguese.
From March 2016 to April 2021, Catherine Maher headed the Wikimedia Foundation, a charitable organization. dedicated to encouraging the production, development and distribution of free and multilingual content..
He will succeed Paddy Cosgrave as CEO of Web Summit after he stepped down following controversial comments about the conflict in the Middle East: “War crimes are war crimes, even when committed by allies.”
These statements prompted companies such as Alphabet, the owner of Google, and Meta, which owns platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, to announce that they would not attend the event. Some partners reversed this decision following the sacking of Paddy Cosgrave.