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Snap Inc

Social Media & TechnologyFounded 2011
Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya
Company data updated: October 2026

Leadership History

Snap: CEO History

2 leaders · 2011 to present

Who is the CEO of Snap?

Evan Spiegel is the CEO of Snap, in the role since 2011.

Current CEO
Evan Spiegel (since 2011)
Leaders documented
2
Founded
2011
NameRoleFromToYears in role
Evan SpiegelCo-Founder and Chief Executive Officer2011Present15
Bobby MurphyCo-Founder and Chief Technology Officer2011Present15

Company Overview

Snap Inc. calls itself a camera company. Snapchat opens straight to the camera instead of a feed, and its core use is sending photos, videos and messages to friends that disappear by default. Around that, Snap has built Stories, the Spotlight short-video feed, Snap Map, Bitmoji avatars, the My AI chatbot and AR Lenses made with Lens Studio. Snap is listed on the NYSE as SNAP. Its public Class A shares carry no votes, and co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy hold voting control through Class C shares. The company is headquartered in Santa Monica, California.

Snap makes most of its money by selling ads inside Snapchat: full-screen vertical video Snap Ads, ads placed between friends' Stories and in Spotlight and Discover, Sponsored Lenses, and shopping and app-install formats sold through a self-serve auction. The second line is what Snap calls Other revenue. This is mostly Snapchat+ subscriptions, plus Snapchat Platinum and Lens+ tiers. Subscription-related revenue grew about 85% year over year in Q2 2026, while advertising revenue grew about 9%. Hardware sales of Spectacles have so far been minor. The consumer SPECS glasses, priced at $2,195, are a separate long-term bet run through the Specs Inc. subsidiary.

Evan Spiegel

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

2011 – Present

15 years (current)

Legacy

Evan Spiegel co-founded Snapchat and has served as its CEO since inception, driving every major product, strategic, and cultural decision in the company's history. His product philosophy prioritizing emotional authenticity and user experience over engagement metrics and data collection has defined Snapchat's design language and differentiated the platform from its more data-centric competitors. Spiegel's decision to reject Facebook's $3 billion acquisition offer in 2013 established Snap's independence and, in retrospect, was one of the most consequential decisions in the history of social media, precipitating Meta's decade-long campaign to contain Snap through feature replication rather than acquisition.

Source →

Bobby Murphy

Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer

2011 – Present

15 years (current)

Key Decisions & Impact

Murphy architected the original Snapchat application and drove the highly strategic acquisitions of Looksery and Bitstrips to dominate augmented reality.

Legacy

As CTO and co-founder, he built the underlying engineering infrastructure that allows Snap's camera to process complex AR lenses instantly, keeping the platform technically ahead of Meta's clones.

Source →

Challenges & Strategic Context

Snap's main problems are scale and profit. Snap has posted a GAAP net loss every year since its 2017 IPO, though the loss narrowed from $1.43 billion in 2022 to $460.5 million in 2025. North American daily users, the most valuable ad audience, fell 7% year over year to 92 million in Q2 2026, even as global users grew. Snap competes for ad budgets with Meta, Google and TikTok, which have far larger audiences and measurement tools. Apple's 2021 App Tracking Transparency rules hurt its ad targeting. Snap also faces lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny over teen safety. And it is spending heavily on AR hardware before that business has shown it can earn money.

Snap CEO and Leadership FAQ

Who is the Chief Executive Officer of Snap Inc.?

Evan Spiegel has served as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors of Snap Inc. since co-founding the company in 2011.

What is Evan Spiegel's background and education?

Evan Spiegel was born in Los Angeles in 1990 and studied product design at Stanford University, where he met co-founders Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown before dropping out just credits shy of graduation in 2012 to focus full-time on Snapchat.

How do Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy maintain absolute voting control of Snap?

Snap operates a multi-class share structure: Class A common stock sold to the public carries zero votes; Class B shares carry one vote per share; and Class C shares held exclusively by Spiegel and Murphy carry 10 votes per share, giving the two founders over 99% of total voting power.

Who is Bobby Murphy and what is his leadership role at Snap?

Bobby Murphy co-founded Snap and has served as Chief Technology Officer and Director since 2011. Murphy wrote the original application code and directs all core engineering, infrastructure, security, and Snap Labs research teams.

Who is Michael Lynton and what is his role on the board?

Michael Lynton, former CEO of Sony Entertainment and longtime mentor to Evan Spiegel, has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Snap Inc. since 2016, providing seasoned media and entertainment governance.

Who was Derek Andersen and what was his role as CFO?

Derek Andersen served as Snap's Chief Financial Officer from 2019 to 2024, navigating the 2020 pandemic boom, the severe advertising contraction following Apple's privacy changes, and initial restructuring programs.

Who was Jeremi Gorman at Snap?

Jeremi Gorman, a former Amazon advertising executive, served as Chief Business Officer of Snap from 2018 to 2022, building out Snap's global enterprise advertising sales force and programmatic exchange before leaving for Netflix.

How did Evan Spiegel handle the infamous 2018 Snapchat redesign controversy?

In early 2018, Spiegel pushed through a radical app redesign separating "social" friends from "media" publishers. The update drew immense user backlash, sparked viral criticism from celebrities like Kylie Jenner, and caused temporary user declines, forcing Spiegel to roll back aspects of the layout.

What was Evan Spiegel's management philosophy during the April 2026 restructuring?

Spiegel flattened management hierarchies, removed intermediate director layers, and eliminated 1,000 positions, emphasizing that small, agile teams empowered with AI tools move significantly faster than large corporate bureaucracies.

What awards and recognitions has Evan Spiegel received?

In 2015, at age 25, Spiegel became one of the youngest self-made billionaires in history, and has been featured on Time 100, Forbes 400, and Vanity Fair New Establishment lists.

How does Evan Spiegel balance commercial advertising with artistic design?

Spiegel maintains deep hands-on involvement in product design and user interface typography, refusing to compromise the app's clean aesthetic with intrusive pop-up banners or low-quality display ads.

What is Evan Spiegel's mandate for Snap over the next decade?

Spiegel is dedicated to achieving sustained GAAP profitability from the core mobile app while commercializing augmented reality through SPECS glasses to usher in the post-smartphone computing paradigm.

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Content is for informational purposes only. Not financial advice. Data sourced from SEC filings, annual reports, and public records. See our full disclaimer and methodology.