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