The co-founder of Chaitra Advertising which is popularly known as Leo Burnett in the contemporary times- Walter Saldanha has now left for his heavenly abode.
Having started his career in 1947 as a typist, he had joined J Walter Thompson as a secretary to a senior account executive in 1951 and went on to work with JWT in various roles including that of setting up JWT operations in Sri Lanka.
It was in 1972, that he and the then Creative Director of Aiyar Advertising and Marketing- Brendan Pereira, stepped out to set up their own advertising agency- Chaitra Advertising in May and by 1983, it made its way into the top 10 advertising agencies in India.
However, in the late 90s Chaitra Advertising was acquired by Leo Burnett, one of the leading advertising agencies in the world and hence goes by the name of latter- today.
That being said, in 2000, Saldanha was awarded for his outstanding contribution to advertising by the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI).
Earlier this year, Periera, the other co-founder of Chaitra Advertising had also passed away.