About
Roberto Santellana is a creative transformation operator working at the intersection of brand, craft, and applied AI. Over two decades of senior leadership — beginning inside Microsoft and Xbox working on emerging technologies and digital transformation, and continuing through executive creative roles at Blast Radius, McCann Worldgroup, Saatchi & Saatchi, and Verizon — have placed him inside many of the most demanding creative and technology organizations in modern marketing.
Today, Roberto is focused on a question the industry is only beginning to confront: how do enterprise creative organizations become AI-native without losing the taste, judgment, and cultural fluency that make their brands worth building in the first place?
His work designs and installs the operating capability in-house creative teams need to lead in the next era of marketing — combining senior creative direction with hands-on creative technology, agentic AI workflows, and the operational infrastructure to make it stick. It is a discipline he has been building toward, in one form or another, since his earliest days inside Microsoft.
As Senior Managing Director of Digital Creative, Technology, and Innovation at Verizon's Consumer Marketing Group, Roberto helps set the vision for next-generation brand experiences, fusing creativity, data, and emerging technology to shape consumer engagement across Verizon's portfolio. It is also where his current thinking on AI-augmented creative systems has been pressure-tested at enterprise scale.
Previously, as EVP, Executive Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi New York, he redefined the creative standard for USAA and led multidisciplinary teams nationwide. At McCann Worldgroup, as SVP, Group Creative Director, he architected the agency's digital, UX, and creative technology capabilities, playing a central role in securing Microsoft, the U.S. Army, and Staples — and contributing to McCann's recognition as Cannes Lions Network of the Year. At Blast Radius in the early 2000s, he scaled the Seattle office from five people to sixty-five, leading award-winning global campaigns for Nike, Levi's, and Starbucks.
A sought-after mentor and educator, Roberto contributes his time to The Future Academy at the School of Visual Arts, where he champions the next generation of creative leaders. Across every chapter of his career, one throughline remains: building high-impact, high-integrity creative organizations that turn complex challenges into category-defining work.
His work has been recognized by Cannes Lions, The One Show, the Clios, the Webbys, Awwwards, The FWA, OMMA, London International Awards, Ad Age, Adweek, Communication Arts, Esquire, NPR, and The Wall Street Journal.
Awards and Recognition
CANNES
ONE SHOW
CLIOS
WEBBYS
AWWWARDS
THE FWA
OMMA
ADAGE
ADWEEK
ESQUIRE
COMM ARTS
NPR
WALL STREET JOURNAL
LONDON INTERNATIONAL AWARDS