For five years prior, Ms Maher served as the CEO of Wikipedia. She also serves as the chair of Signal Messenger, a messaging platform. Her hiring comes after co-founder of Web Summit Paddy Cosgrave decided to step down a little over a week ago due to criticism of remarks he made on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Web Summit announced in a statement this morning, “She has been appointed by the board to lead the company through this period of transition.”

Two weeks before the company's primary flagship conference in Lisbon, Ms. Maher assumes leadership of the organisation.

Actress Gillian Anderson, Google, Meta, Intel, Stripe, and Siemens were among the prominent speakers and guests that withdrew from the event due to the uproar surrounding Mr. Cosgrave's remarks.

“Our immediate task is returning the focus to what we do best: delivering dialogue among all those connected with technological advancement,” stated Maher.

Ms. Maher is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a non-resident Senior Fellow on Democracy and Technology at the Atlantic Council.

She also works as a security fellow at the Truman National Security Project and is a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum.

The business also said today that Damian Kimmelman, a pioneer in technology, has been named as a non-executive board director.

In the US and Europe, he has co-founded several successful businesses and organisations, including the edtech firm Batelle.com, the nonprofit FoundersPledge.com, the business bank Rho.co, and the business data supplier DueDil.com, which is now Completecircl.

Even after stepping down as CEO, Paddy Cosgrave still holds 81% of the business.

Given that her mother's family originated in the Tisrara/Mount Talbot region of County Roscommon and her father's side hails from Templemore in County Tipperary, Ms. Maher has Irish American ancestry.