Leo Santos
Executive Creative Director
Following an early career as a Copywriter, Leo Santos left his native Brazil to pursue an Art Direction degree at the storied Portfolio Center, in Atlanta. There, he earned the Grand Prize for best student portfolio in the country in the first Mother Of All Portfolio Contests, held by Bates Worldwide.
Since then, he's helped turn a small, under-the-radar agency in Lower Alabama into Agency Of The Year in their local chapter of the AAF, survived some Detroit winters while working for Campbell-Ewald on Alltel, Michelin, and the often-parodied “Real Stories” campaign for OnStar, then finally made his was to Dallas for a stint with The Richards Group, on Home Depot.
Since 2008, Leo has been in the trenches at TMA, lending his experience and creative leadership to national brands like Doritos, Cheetos, SunChips, Papa Murphy’s, Advance Auto Parts, DieHard, Absolut and Jameson. His U.S. career has been recognized with over 100 industry awards in a broad span of categories, from Earned Media Activation to Experiential, from Broadcast to Point-of-Sale, including nine Cannes Lions and a Clio Grand.
All that, however, is a side project to Leo’s true calling and full-time job as the father and mentor of two creatives-in-the-making, Gloria, 11, and Nico, 8.