Following on from the past three recipients (Jack Dorsey, Eric Schmidt and Mark Zuckerberg), the Media Person of the Year at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has just been announced as YouTube CEO Salar Kamangar.

Each year, the ‘so-called Oscars’ of the advertising world chooses its media innovator, and the figure who has shaped the industry the most in that time and for 2013 the choice was easy.

“YouTube has become a global phenomenon under Salar’s leadership,” says Phillip Thomas, CEO of Cannes Lions. “The statistics say it all: more than one billion unique users a month watch more than six billion hours of video.”

Thomas also admitting that the one-time svp, video at Google who was responsible for creating the super-earning AdWords has since 2009 expanded YouTube into a global broadcast platform, recently launching its first paid channels.

Kamangar’s YouTube has also been lauded for launching TrueView, the advertising format whereby advertisers only pay for ads watched. There has been a doubling of the number of advertisers using it in the last year.

Kamangar receives the prestigious award June 19, during the 60th annual Cannes Lions festival.