Shahrzad Rafati, founder and CEO of  BroadbandTV, Playback‘s Digital Company of the Year, was named Executive of the Year at the nextMEDIA Digi Awards, the first female executive to receive the honour.

Under Rafati’s leadership, BroadbandTV attained one billion monthly impressions in 2013 and secured an initial $36 million from RTL Group.

“It is an honour to be recognized once again by nextMEDIA and to be nominated among such an extraordinary group of finalists,” said Rafati in a statement. “The past year has been a time of tremendous growth and excitement for BroadbandTV, this award is testament to the hard work put in by our amazing team.”

BroadbandTV is one of the largest entertainment networks on YouTube with over 12,000 partners.

Check out Playback‘s Winter 2014 issue for an interview with Rafati and a profile on Broadband TV.