Dru DeSantis

Co-CEO
DeSantis Breindel
New York

USA

Dru DeSantis is a founding partner of New York-based brand strategy and experience design firm DeSantis Breindel. A career champion of design’s power to transform perceptions and create value for brands, she leads creative strategy, brand identity and design work across her firm’s Fortune 500 client base.

DeSantis shapes brand design strategies with a multi-disciplinary perspective, addressing the challenge of establishing a strong, differentiating and memorable presence in today’s crowded marketplace for products and ideas. Across contexts, mediums and touchpoints, she helps businesses connect with their customers, investors, partners and employees to motivate the actions that drive growth.

Previously, DeSantis founded DeSantis Design, a specialized design practice that grew to be a recognized leader in creative strategy for corporate and marketing communications. The firm was acquired by a subsidiary of Grey Global Group, and it was then that she met and collaborated with Howard Breindel for the first time. Together, they built the company into one of Grey’s most profitable branding and marketing subsidiaries before exiting to found their own partnership.

In addition to leading DeSantis Breindel’s work for global leaders spanning financial institutions (Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank), healthcare (Pfizer, Aetna), professional services firms (EisnerAmper), technology companies (SailPoint) and others, DeSantis has also led the development of her firm’s foundation and non-profit branding and marketing business (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) as well as an award-winning corporate and documentary filmmaking practice.

She serves as a board member of Playworks, a national organization that supports learning by guiding young students through healthy, inclusive play. Playworks’ programs are currently helping students connect to learning through creative, fun experiences in 300 schools across 22 American cities.