Biography

Popularly known as "Paddy", Santosh Padhi started his advertising career 15 years ago with Mudra Mumbai. Then, after an eventful ten-year stint at Leo Burnett, where he was Executive Creative Director and the National Head of Art (India), he left the network to start a new creative venture, Taproot India, with his good friend and partner Agnello Dias.

Currently, Taproot India works with iconic national and international brands such as The Times of India, the National Geographic Channel, the Fox History & Entertainment Channel, the Mumbai Mirror and Nirma detergent.

Paddy holds the record for the most Cannes Lions (nine) and the most One Show Pencils (four) won by an individual Indian creative. In 2009, he was voted the top creative person from India by Campaign Brief Asia magazine. He is also the first Indian to win a Cyber Cannes Lion (in 2008) and a One Show Pencil (in 2009) in digital. He was voted the third best art director in the world in a survey conducted by Campaign (UK) in early 2009.

In 2008, his Luxor highlighters campaign won more than 80 international awards, making it one of the most awarded campaigns in the world. In 2006, he was featured as the Young Turk of advertising by CNBC and, in 2007, he was featured in The Week magazine as one of the emerging Indians in the field of communication.