Are CEOs a Company's Highest-Paid Influencer? Meet the Leaders Determined to Be
A CEO's LinkedIn post gets 8x the engagement of the company page. Forbes' Doug Melville argues the executive creator era is here — and boards are taking notice.
By Board of Creators Editorial Team ·
Key takeaways
- A CEO's personal LinkedIn post generates roughly 8x the engagement of the same post on a company page.
- CEO reputation now drives talent: 77% say it attracts employees, 70% say it retains them, and 50% accepted a job because of the CEO.
- Executives are increasingly judged on what they contribute outside their companies, not just inside them.
- Doug Melville's five-step pivot: teach before you speak, lead something bigger, treat distribution as queen, become AI fluent, build one brand.
- The skill traffic has reversed: executives are now studying creators' consistency, authenticity and platform fluency.
- Creators who understand executive audiences will find partnership opportunities as brands activate their own leaders.
The most valuable creator on your company's payroll might already have a corner office.
That is the provocation at the heart of a new Forbes column by leadership contributor Doug Melville, who argues that the CEO has quietly become a company's highest-paid influencer — and profiles the leaders who are determined to make that influence intentional rather than accidental.
It is a sharp reframe of a shift that has been building all year. At Cannes Lions this summer, Melville noted that the Croisette — long the territory of fashion influencers, travel vloggers and TikTok personalities — was increasingly lined with CEOs, founders and senior executives commanding attention. The creator economy, it turns out, is not just for creators anymore. It is becoming a strategic leadership skill.
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The numbers behind the executive creator
The data explains why boards are paying attention.
A CEO's personal LinkedIn post generates roughly eight times the engagement of a similar post on their company's branded page. Eight times. The same words, the same ideas — but audiences respond to a person in a way they simply do not respond to a logo.
The effect runs deeper than likes. Research cited by Design Army founder Pum Lefebure, drawing on Walker Consulting and KRC Research, shows CEO reputation now drives the talent market directly: a strong leader reputation attracts employees for 77% of companies, retains them for 70%, and fully half of workers say they accepted a job because of the CEO.
In an era of depleted institutional trust, the executive's personal voice has become a business asset with measurable returns — in recruiting, retention, partnerships and brand preference.
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Why leaders resist — and why that is changing
Most executives did not sign up to be content creators. Their influence was traditionally exercised through boardrooms, earnings calls and carefully worded press releases. Visibility was optional, and many preferred it that way.
Melville's Forbes reporting tracks why that posture is breaking down. Executives are no longer judged solely by what they accomplish inside their companies; they are increasingly valued for what they contribute outside them. The leaders profiled in his coverage treat visibility not as self-promotion but as a professional discipline — something to be built deliberately, with a clear point of view and consistent distribution.
Melville speaks from experience. After two decades in the C-suite — including executive roles at TBWA in Los Angeles and luxury group Richemont in Geneva — he pivoted into life as what he calls an executive content creator: writing for Forbes, hosting the weekly podcast "DM Me with Doug Melville" on iHeartMedia's Black Effect Podcast Network, lecturing at Stanford's Graduate School of Business and publishing books with Simon & Schuster.
His own playbook for the transition, shared after the Cannes piece drew a wave of responses, includes five steps: teach before you speak, lead something bigger than yourself, treat distribution as queen, become AI fluent, and build one brand — not five.
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What this means for the creator economy
There is a useful irony here for working creators.
For years, influencers studied corporate polish — media training, brand guidelines, crisis PR. Now the traffic runs the other way: executives are studying creators. Consistency, authenticity, direct-to-audience communication, native platform fluency — the skills that built creator careers are becoming C-suite competencies.
That convergence validates what creators have long argued: attention is earned through trust and repetition, not bought through placement. It also raises the competitive stakes. When a Fortune 500 CEO's post outperforms the company page eight to one, every founder and executive is now, in effect, a rival for the same feed space creators depend on.
The opportunity is partnership rather than competition. Brands that once hired influencers to borrow their credibility are discovering their own leaders carry the same currency. Creators who understand executive audiences — and executives who understand creator mechanics — will shape the next era of the industry.
The highest-paid influencer in the building may not have a ring light. But increasingly, they have a strategy.
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*This story was adapted from reporting by Doug Melville for Forbes (September 19, 2026), with additional context from Melville's earlier Cannes Lions coverage and related executive-influence research.*
Frequently asked questions
Why is a CEO considered a company's highest-paid influencer?
Because a CEO's personal posts generate roughly eight times the engagement of company-branded posts, and CEO reputation directly affects hiring, retention and brand trust — making the executive's voice one of the company's most valuable marketing assets.
What is an executive content creator?
An executive content creator is a CEO, founder or senior leader who builds a personal content platform — on LinkedIn, podcasts, video or newsletters — using expertise rather than lifestyle as their currency of influence.
What are Doug Melville's five steps to pivot from the C-suite to executive influencer?
Teach before you speak, lead something bigger than yourself, treat distribution as queen, become AI fluent, and build one consistent personal brand rather than several fragmented ones.
Does CEO visibility actually affect recruiting?
Yes. Research cited from Walker Consulting and KRC Research shows a strong CEO reputation attracts employees for 77% of companies, retains them for 70%, and half of workers say they accepted a job because of the CEO.