A bio box for Deborah Penta
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The WBJ Hall of Fame
WBJ Hall of Fame: Penta's knack for personal connections made her a community treasure
Photo I Courtesy of Matt Wright
Deborah Penta, CEO of PENTA Communications
By Livia Gershon
Deborah Penta may be a sought-after marketing and communications professional, but she says one of the most fun projects she’s taken on in her career was something well outside that wheelhouse. In 2013, her firm, PENTA Communications, purchased a historic Westborough building constructed in 1790 and completely renovated and modernized it.
When she started on the project, Penta said she reached out to a number of general contractors, who all told her it would take about a year. Instead she moved a card table into the building and ran the whole process herself.
“I would get up and go and talk to the contractors and then go back to the card table and consult with clients,” she said.
Ultimately, the project was completed in six months, and it received the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Silver Hammer award for extraordinary construction and rehabilitation projects.
Penta credits that success to her fascination with design and to the help she received from others in the community, from the town planner to other business owners who had done their own renovations. This combination of community connections and passions in different areas have propelled both her boutique marketing firm’s rise to prominence and her engagement with numerous nonprofits and organizations in Central Massachusetts.
Penta’s career in communications began in 1980s’ London, at the Ted Bates advertising firm, which was acquired by Saatchi & Saatchi in 1986. There, she was able to work with major brands and witness the rapid evolution of the global marketing industry firsthand.
In 1989, she founded her own firm, which began as a solo consultancy in Worcester. Over time, she added employees so instead of simply strategizing with clients, she could actually carry their plans out.
For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the firm helped shellshocked clients transform themselves to serve customers staying home. One Boston luxury products company shifted from brick and mortar to online sales, with the help of virtual events allowing customers to get a feel for products they couldn’t see and touch for themselves. Another company, this one focused on hospitality, organized online wine dinners and whisky events and pivoted to an entirely take-out model.
“It was one of the busiest times of my life,” Penta said. “It was energizing and thought-provoking. It was also exhausting because it was literally nonstop.”
Penta has served on the boards of more than a dozen area organizations, from the Corridor 9/495 Regional Chamber of Commerce to the Girl Scouts of America Montachusett Council.
At the Worcester Regional Research Bureau, where she chaired the board for two years, fellow board member Abraham Haddad recalled how Penta stepped up when Executive Director Timothy McGourthy abruptly left the position to become CFO for the City of Worcester in 2019. She connected the board with someone she thought might be perfect for the job: Paul Matthews, then the leader of the 495/MetroWest Partnership. After a rigorous but speedy progress, Matthews got the job, and he’s been an asset to the organization ever since, Haddad said. Haddad has seen Penta support other organizations in similar ways, connecting them with the perfect person to help or offering useful strategic guidance.
“She has an ongoing commitment to the wellbeing of the community,” Haddad said.
PENTA Communications as a firm shares its founder’s community-minded vision. It prizes sustainability in its operations, does pro bono work for local groups, supports the Make-a-Wish Foundation, and organizes an annual flag-raising event with area veterans at its headquarters. It focuses heavily on mentorship. For example, its Penta Marketing Scholars program gave dozens of Westborough High School students hands-on experience in marketing, including meetings with CEOs of client companies.
Penta said taking on many kinds of work with a variety of groups becomes an asset in everything she does.
“I do know so many people from different sectors,” she said. “It’s incredibly intellectually stimulating, but also it helps in so many ways, where there is something going on and I think ‘Oh, this person would be so good to hook up with that person.’”
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