Neeraj Kanitkar joins Fundamental as co-founder and ECD

He was an ECD at DDB Mudra before the move.

Bolstering the workforce at the newly minted creative agency Fundamental is Neeraj Kanitkar, former ECD at Taproot Dentsu and DDB Mudra. He comes on board as co-founder and ECD.

With 15 years of experience under his belt, Kanitkar is best known for his work on Facebook and Meta, he has worked on many noteworthy accounts including McDonald’s, Stayfree, McDowell’s No.1, Lenovo, WhatsApp, Myntra, Star Sports (IPL), Times of India and FirstPost. And he has notched up hundreds of metals at The One Show, D&AD, Spikes, AdFest, Abbys and Effies.

Also Read: A look at the origin story of ‘Fundamental’, India’s newest agency on the block

Pallavi Chakravarti, Founder and CCO said, “Nishant, Anand and I unanimously agreed that to start building Fundamental we need people who will own the place and everything we hope it will come to stand for – Neeraj is the ideal choice to have at the ground floor.”

“His talent, leadership qualities and approach to advertising make him a perfect fit and his ability to reason, debate and present a strong point of view is just what the agency needs in order to build a system where everyone isn’t just blindly agreeing with one another but actively thinking through every job on the table. Fundamental doesn't have to welcome him aboard – I’d just say he’s home.”

Kanitkar said, "An advertising agency can be the most wonderful, magical place. When you get to create work while laughing, crying, bickering, violently disagreeing and on the rare occasion agreeing with people who love advertising as much as you do."

"I have learnt to love the chaos, the anxiety and the unpredictability of the creative process. And that's what I hope we can recreate on repeat with Fundamental. Because once you do that, then work that works, work those wows clients and consumer alike, work that comes back to you as WhatsApp forwards, will follow."

Apart from DDB Mudra and Taproot Dentsu, Kanitkar has worked in Contract Advertising too.