Declan Ganley, Irish Entrepreneur, Chairman & CEO Rivada Networks, a leading public safety communications business with operations in the US and Europe.  Declan has built a number of businesses in the telecommunications and natural resources sector including Broadnet, which rolled out wireless networks in ten European countries.  He rolled out a cable TV network, Cabletel, in Eastern Europe, and from 1991-1997 built what became the largest private forestry company in the Former Soviet Union.  Declan is Founder & Chairman of The Libertas Institute, which has campaigned on European issues, starting with its successful referendum campaign against the first Libson Treaty in 2008. As a European federalist, he has campaigned for a democratic, solvent and federal European Union.  He is a regular commentator/op-ed contributor on business and European affairs for international print and broadcast media.

Declan is a recipient of the Louisiana Distinguished Service Medal for what was cited as his life saving actions; leading Rivada Networks’ delivery of communications capability for emergency responders post Hurricane Katrina. In 2008 he was awarded the Frode Jacobson Prize for Courage in Copenhagen and the Czech Republic’s Michal Tosovsky Prize.

He served for over twenty years with the 54th Field Artillery Regiment, Irish Army Reserve.  Declan is co-author of What If Ireland Defaults (Orpen Press 2012).  He was the subject of media columnist Bruce Arnold’s 2009 book The Fight for Democracy.