Paddy Cosgrave

Paddy Cosgrave
Cosgrave at Web Summit 2015
Born	1982/1983 (age 33–34)
Nationality	Irish
Occupation	Entrepreneur
Known for	Co-founder of Web Summit

Paddy Cosgrave is an Irish entrepreneur. He is a co-founder of Web Summit, an annual technology conference, and CEO of the company that runs Web Summit and other events. In 2015 he was listed 18th in the Wired UK list of the most influential people in Europe in the field of technology.

Patrick "Paddy" Cosgrave grew up on a farm in County Wicklow. He was educated at Glenstal Abbey School and Trinity College Dublin, where he studied Business, Economics and Social Studies (BESS). While at Trinity he was president of the University Philosophical Society (The Phil) and editor of Piranha, a satirical college magazine. During his presidency of The Phil, the society introduced Phil Speaks, an outreach initiative aimed at promoting debating and public speaking in Irish secondary schools. Cosgrave graduated with a BA from Trinity College, Dublin's BESS program in 2006.

Cosgrave was one of the organizers and the executive director of Rock the Vote Ireland, a campaign launched in April 2007 to encourage young people to vote in the May 2007 Irish general election. He was also a co-founder of MiCandidate, a website that "provided detailed information on every candidate running in the 2007 general election". MiCandidate expanded its scope to become a syndicator of news and information about European politicians to media organizations. The company was sold for "an undisclosed sum" in October 2009.

Cosgrave is a co-founder of the Web Summit and F.ounders conferences, and the CEO of Ci, the company that runs the two conferences and other events. F.ounders is an invitation-only event first held in Dublin in October 2009. The first Dublin Web Summit in November 2010 was attended by approximately 400 people. The fourth annual Web Summit in November 2014 had an attendance of over 22,000, and 30,000 were expected to attend the event in Dublin in November 2015. Starting in 2016, the Web Summit was held in Lisbon, although Ci continued to be headquartered in Dublin. In 2014 Ci began introducing new events in the United States (Collision) and Hong Kong (RISE), with an event called SURGE planned for February 2016 in India.