Siddhartha Butalia was born in Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, India and spent his childhood in many towns of UP and Uttarakhand. His formative school years were at Kendriya Vidyalya, Navy Nagar, Mumbai. He graduated with Honours in Economics from Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University where he was Secretary and Cultural Secretary of the Student's Union in 2001 and 2002. He did his first post-graduation from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai in Mass Communication, specialising in Advertising and Marketing. He has also done his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, specialising in Marketing and Strategy.
He started his advertising career as a client-servicing executive with Ogilvy and Mather - where his clients included Kodak, Nestle, Pidilite, the World Gold Council and Garware. Here, he was part of the advertising team on various Fevicol and M-Seal campaigns, which won at Cannes, the Abby Awards, the Asia Pacific Ad fest and Inside One Show among others. He then joined J. Walter Thompson, working on the Unilever account Rin, when the detergent price wars in India started. After his post-graduation from IIM Lucknow, Siddhartha joined the Tata Group as a TAS Manager and worked on a number of projects including on the Tata Nano, Ginger Hotels, Tetley and the Tata Group Corporate Affairs Department.
He has written for a number of publications including The Economic Times, The Times of India, Indiatravelogue.com and masti. He has also been an Executive Member of the English Literary Society, SRCC; Editorial Board Member of The Write Stuff, the ELS magazine and Editor of the Shri Ram College Hostel Newsletter.
His passion for theatre began as a member of the Dramatics Society, SRCC where he scripted and acted in 'Michelangelo'. He also played the title role in 'Anand', staged at Rajpal, and staged several street plays to promote HIV awareness, prevent alcoholism and propagate messages with social objectives.
A self-proclaimed water lover, he represented his college in Water Polo and enjoys swimming and scuba diving. He received his 1* CMAS Diving License in scuba diving at 16. His love for diving brought him to work for the preservation of coral reefs with the NGO Reef Watch Marine Conservation. An ardent traveller, he has been on several treks in India and Nepal, and undertook his first 100 km trek to the Pindari glacier at age seven. Among other adventure activities, he also enjoys river rafting and paragliding.
He has currently returned from his stint as Brand Manager at Tetley, London and after launching the Vivanta by Taj brand, is now working as Director of Marketing - The Gateway Hotels & Resorts at Taj Hotels, Resoprts & Palaces.
Siddhartha Butalia was born in Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, India and spent his childhood in many towns of UP and Uttarakhand. His formative school years were at Kendriya Vidyalya, Navy Nagar, Mumbai. He graduated with Honours in Economics from Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University where he was Secretary and Cultural Secretary of the Student's Union in 2001 and 2002. He did his first post-graduation from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai in Mass Communication, specialising in Advertising and Marketing. He has also done his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, specialising in Marketing and Strategy.
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