Declan James Ganley (born 23 July 1968) is an English-born Irish entrepreneur, businessman, and political activist. He was the founder and leader of the Irish branch of the Libertas Party. Primarily a telecommunications entrepreneur, Ganley has built businesses across the European Union, Russia and latterly, the United States. Notably, he co-founded Broadnet, a company which rolled out internet and telecoms services across the European Union in the late 1990s. In 1999, after the award of 42 German licences to Broadnet, the Irish Independent valued Broadnet at $875m. Ganley later sold his shares to Comcast for an undisclosed sum. As of 2022, he is the chairman and CEO of Rivada Networks, a telecommunications company specialising in the use and arbitrage of wireless spectrum. Rivada has patented technologies in the field of dynamic spectrum arbitrage. In 2013, Ganley testified that Rivada's patents had the potential to "save the taxpayer hundreds of millions of dollars". He founded and sold companies in forestry and the online sector. During the 2008 Irish referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon, Ganley and the Libertas Institute successfully campaigned for a "No" vote, which was overturned in a second referendum. He campaigned for a "No" vote in the 2012 Irish European Fiscal Compact referendum. He has guest-presented Tonight with Vincent Browne. In 2009, Ganley founded and became chairman of Libertas, a political party with pan-European ambitions. The party was unsuccessful in the 2009 European Parliament Election, succeeding in getting only one candidate elected, in France. Ganley was upbeat after the defeat, describing the venture as a failed experiment. Early life Ganley was born in Watford, Hertfordshire, to Irish emigrant parents. He returned to Ireland with his parents to live in Glenamaddy, County Galway, at the age of 13. After leaving school in 1987, Ganley has been involved in business ventures selling Russian aluminium, and in the Latvian forestry sector. In the early 1990s, Ganley founded Kipelova Forestry Enterprises, which became one of the largest forestry companies in the Russian Federation. Ganley sold the company in 1997. In 1996, his company Ganley International founded the Anglo-Adriatic Investment Fund, an Albanian financial fund formed to collect and invest privatisation vouchers. Following political upheaval and several changes of government, the Albanian government ceased its planned privatisation programmes, and the fund became dormant. He formed a company called Liberty Mobile that made two unsuccessful bids, in partnership with Qualcomm, to obtain mobile telecoms