Paddy Cosgrave's salary nearly doubled upon his return to Web Summit last year.
Cosgrave, David Kelly and Daire Hickey founded the influential tech conference in 2009, and the event attracted industry and cultural leaders as speakers and tens of thousands of attendees to Dublin every year before moving to Lisbon in 2016.
It has since spawned a number of spin-off events around the world, but Cosgrave stepped down as CEO of the company in late 2023 under pressure for remarks he made online about Israel's bombing Gaza following the events of 7 October.
Amazon, Google, Meta, Intel and Siemens were among the major companies to pull out of Web Summit 2023 over Cosgrave's comments on western backing for Israel's "war crimes" in Gaza.
Cosgrave returned to the fold last April, promising a more intimate, convivial and community-focused event.
He is the only one of the three co-founders to remain with Web Summit following a falling-out that has resulted in an ongoing High Court battle.
Cosgrave is suing Kelly for alleged breaches of duties as company director, and seeking damages related to losses he alleges stemmed from Kelly's role in establishing a venture capital fund separate to Web Summit.
Kelly and Hickey are also suing Cosgrave, with five individual cases to be heard in a civil trial over the next nine weeks.
The court was told on Wednesday that Cosgrave received a €1m signing-on bonus when he rejoined Web Summit last year and now earns an annual salary of €950,000.
Furthermore, he was eligible for a performance-related bonus of between €950,000 and €1m in December, bringing his total remuneration for 2024 up to nearly €3m.
In 2018, Cosgrave's salary was €266,667, and he received a bonus of €166,000 and a pension contribution of €100,000. His salary then rose to €300,000 the following year, and he received a further bonus of €100,000 paid into his pension.
His salary remained the same in 2020 and 2021, but his pension bonus doubled to €200,000 in 2020, during which time Web Summit events were cancelled due to Covid.
In 2021, Cosgrave's bonus rose to €1.2m, or around four times his base salary. His salary then increased to €500,000 in 2022, and he was paid a bonus of €2.5m that year.
Between them, Cosgrave, Kelly and Hickey wholly own Web Summit's Dartry-based operating company Manders Terrace Ltd. Cosgrave owns the largest stake (81%), with Kelly (12%) and Hickey (7%) owning the remainder.
Lawyers for Hickey value his 7% stakeholding at €19m to €25m, which would value Web Summit at between €271.4m and €357.1m. Cosgrave's share would be worth an estimated €219.8m to €289.3m.
Photo: Paddy Cosgrave. (Pic: Horacio Villalobos - Corbis/Getty Images)
