Sonal DabralA graduate of National Institute of Design, Sonal studied visual communication, film and photography, He started his advertising career at Lintas in New Delhi.

After five years, he moved to Mumbai to join Piyush Pandey, then CD at Ogilvy Mumbai. Breakthrough work followed on brands such as Cadbury’s and Fevicol. Together this partnership drove O&M India from the creative wilderness to the number one creative agency in the country, garnering awards from top regional and international shows along the way.

In May 2004, Sonal took over as Chairman and ECD of O&M Advertising, Singapore, the top creative agency in the Asia-Pacific region. Soon with major wins in almost all regional and international award shows, Ogilvy Singapore became number one creative office in Ogilvy Worldwide and in the entire WPP network. To top it all, in 2007 in Cannes, as Chairman and Executive Creative Director, Sonal led Ogilvy Singapore to be the third highest awarded agency in the world. Ogilvy Singapore emerged second runner up as global ‘Agency of the Year’, a first for an Asian agency!

After a long stint with Ogilvy, Sonal joined Bates 141 in late 2008 as the Regional Creative Head, to uphold and improve the creative standing of the agency across Asia.

In his spare time, Sonal has been a popular TV host, Bollywood script writer and has also been channelling his passion for films into directing ad-films. In 2004, D&AD featured a spot he wrote and directed for the MC2 Awards. Next on agenda is his first feature film, which he plans to direct in the next couple of years.