Born in New York City, Mr. Santoro attended the High School of Art & Design where he was a member of the first ever, industrial design high school program in the United States. After graduating from Pratt Institute with a bachelor degree in Industrial Design, Mr. Santoro was accepted as the first ever, post-graduate design intern at Chrysler Corporation where, upon completion, he received an offer to join the staff.

Mr. Santoro spent 6 years as an automotive designer at Chrysler where he created the ground breaking, cab-forward exterior design for the 1995 Car of the Year, the first generation Chrysler Cirrus and it's sister vehicle, the Dodge Stratus. Before leaving Chrysler, Mr. Santoro penned the 1996-2006 Jeep Wrangler, returning the vehicle visually to its iconic roots while pushing it forward into the new century.

Returning to New York City, Mr. Santoro spent two years as a consulting designer for Walter Dorwin Teague, America's oldest design consultancy. There he worked on numerous programs including creating conceptual design interiors for Boeing Aerospace and the production interior for the Gulfstream G5 aircraft.

Mr. Santoro retuned to automotive design work as a consultant working on the Vector M12  production supercar and Vector M12 "American Anthem" North American International Auto Show show car. Additional projects including the  Lamborghini Jota show car followed.

In 1999, Mr. Santoro created the Apple-specific case market with the launch of his company, MacCase.

Mr. Santoro has been featured in several articles for his design innovations at Chrysler including “Passage by Design” (AutoWeek, January 9, 1995), “The Designers Who Saved Chrysler” (The New York Times, January 30, 1994) and his work at MacCase “Flexible Pens ( Car & Drvier, September 2013). Additional articles about Mr. Santoro and his work have appeared in Automobile, Road & Track, The Detroit Free Press and Car Styling.

He has been a part of student design reviews at College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan and Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California as well taught Transportation Design at Pratt Institute in New York City.