Reggie Candappa

Reginald Sebastian Rodrigo Candappa (Tamil: ரெஜி கந்தப்பா) (1919–2003) was a Sri Lankan media personality and founder chairman of Sri Lanka's biggest advertising agency, Grant McCann Erickson.

Biography Reggie Candappa was born in 1919 to father A.R. Candappa, a Colombo Chetty and mother Kalubowila Arachchige Dona Alice, a Sinhalese.

The young Reggie Candappa was given away by his father after the death of Dona Alice when the infant Reggie was just three months old on the grounds that the cause of her death was the infant according to his horoscope. Candappa studied at St. Joseph's Catholic College, where his creative talent was recognised by the influential teacher J. P. de Fonseka. Fonseka got Candappa work as an illustrator in the school magazine and of books by a Catholic priest. He subsequently studied architecture, getting work with the local architect S. Shanmuganathan on the strength of his portfolio of drawings.

Career During World War II his family moved to Eheliyagoda, where he worked as a freelance artist and illustrator, soon becoming a prolific designer of advertisements. After the war, he decided to set up his own office. His business rapidly expanded, and he soon had several artists working under him.