The 40-year-old was born in the United States and has lived in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt — three of Israel’s longtime enemies — and Tunisia, and in 2005 earned a bachelor’s degree from New York University in the Middle East. Studies and Islamic. Catherine Maher was the woman chosen to replace Paddy Cosgrave as CEO of Web Summit – just days away from taking the stage again in Lisbon and in the midst of a crisis that has put her at risk.

Whenever one of the Web Summit’s major sponsors sneezes, the organization panics – demonstrating its high degree of dependence on its most important funders – but this time things went further. Maher’s predecessor, Paddy Cosgrave, was removed (or removed, as the organization prefers to tell the story) after being found guilty of a crime of opinion. It has already been recognized that the Web Summit is not exactly a place of freedom – in fact, it doesn’t have to be – but it has also been recognized that the organization’s way of managing crises is always corrupt and let it go. Lots of doubts. This became very clear a few years ago when Marine Le Pen was invited to come to Lisbon to do some work.

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