Deepa Dey’s 32-Year Journey: From Accidental PR Professional to most prominent leader

Deepa Dey is a well-known name in the PR & Comms industry. For the last 32-years, she has been leading the industry with her exceptional skills and established herself as a phenomenal comms professional who has worked in leadership roles for leading companies like HUL, GSK, Airtel, SpiceJet, and The Park Hotels. What many of us have not discussed much yet is her tremendous efforts as a mentor, and as an advocate for women's empowerment, sustainability, and other societal issues.

In today’s series, we will explore Deepa Dey’s fascinating career journey from:

• How she came across the PR Industry and how she got her first opportunity
• Her work for women's empowerment & how she nurtures the leaders and next generation of professionals through her mentorship
• Key takeaways from her three decades of professional journey
• Her plans for the future, and so much more

Reflection of her 32-years professional journey

Thirty-two years ago, Dey never envisioned herself in the world of public relations. What followed was nothing short of a rollercoaster journey—one where she worked across diverse industries from hospitality & book retail to real estate & e-commerce, infrastructure & tourism, telecom, aviation, healthcare and FMCG. As an agency partner, she supported Philips India and Singapore Tourism board, as an in-house Comms leader, she has led the communications functions for Indian transnationals, Industry leaders and MNCs including Apeejay Surrendra Group, SpiceJet, Airtel, GSK and HUL.

“Like many others, I am an accidental PR professional. I was always planning to do my PhD in English Literature and never wanted to work. But then life happened, and I started looking for a job,” she admits.

She explains that, without a business degree or being trained as an engineer or doctor, the options for someone with an MA in English Literature were limited to teaching, advertising, or journalism, in her younger days. While doing her MA and Mphil, studying the works of Chaucer and T.S. Eliot, she found herself moonlighting as a stringer for The Economic Times, contributing to their Metro pages in Calcutta.

However, “I realised I needed a full-time occupation,” she says. That’s when, her search led her to an Employment Exchange in Calcutta, where she stood in line for 45 minutes in the hot sun to submit a form. “That led to two interview calls, one in suburban Rishra and another off tony Russell Street in Calcutta. It was no-brainer which one I chose!” she says. Despite being unemployed, she turned down the first job offer, sensing something wasn’t quite right.

Her journey continued with her MPhil studies and occasional columns until she stumbled upon an ad seeking a sub-editor. That led her to ‘Amrit Bazaar Patrika’, India's oldest English-language newspaper. After spending a few years with them, she applied to The Statesman. Here she landed a job but in a sharp turn, moved into PR with The Park Hotels. “Little did I know that the day I walked into that magnificent mansion on Park Street, my life would change,” she reminisces.

“While I started with Hospitality, I moved to other industries and spend significant time in Aviation, Telecom, Healthcare and FMCG. IN summary, it was whole range of experiences—marketing communications, media relations, online reputation management, culture building, crisis management, sustainability, CSR, and global mergers across India and South Asia," she shares.

Her journey culminated in her role at Hindustan Unilever (HUL), where she supported the largest merger in the food sector in India. "What started as a stumbling step towards PR, over three decades, became a breath-taking and sometimes sleepless journey, full of learning, connecting, nurturing, and custodianship of change and culture management—with inspiring bosses, exciting mandates, close-knit teams, and wonderful partnerships,” she expresses.

Key Learnings from her working experience

With three decades of experience across leading organisations like Hindustan Unilever (HUL), GSK Consumer Healthcare, Airtel, SpiceJet, and The Park Hotels, Deepa Dey’s journey has been filled with invaluable insights. Elaborating these years, she shares some key lessons that have shaped her approach to business and leadership,

“Organisation culture determines the way of working – A listed entity operates very differently from a non-listed, family-owned organisation; an MNC operates differently from a home-grown company. Learn to adapt quickly to your surroundings for ease of working. Unlearn to relearn.

Always bring the weather inside – Businesses, both big and small, are often too blinkered and they need an ‘outside in’ view, unfiltered. Bring in the outside for the teams to win, become the source of information and the sounding board. Bring in experts to land messages when your own one’s wont.

Partnering is both Prime and Primal – No matter what your designation is, create bridges, highways and underpasses to network within the organisation and with your partner organisation. Partnership is critical for flow of information as well as it pays rich dividends during the crisis times. Communication teams are small – you will not be able to deliver the work without people having your back.

Content blooms in Context – The Joshua Bell and WaPo experiment is a wonderful example of this. If you don’t understand the context in which your business is operating, your outreach will not land well. So spend time to understand the context well, and how it is changing. Train yourself to join the dots – see how you can understand the bigger picture.

Lift as you rise – I have always believed that my growth is dependent on my team – if they grow, so will I. Cause if I have to remain their leader, I have to constantly upskill and learn from them. But more than that, I have always believed that as a leader, my effort should be to mentor and nurture people who need it, regardless of which department they work in.”

Her contributions to women empowerment

In a society where traditional roles often define a woman’s identity, Deepa Dey challenges societal norms and paves the way for others to find their voice. Speaking candidly about her journey, she shares the personal and societal forces that shaped her passion for women’s empowerment and her role in the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP).

“My generation of women grew up primarily as caregivers and homemakers, some of us didn’t want to do that,” she highlights. Raised as the youngest daughter in a large, multigenerational, conservative joint family, she observed first-hand the constraints women often faced. “Women in my family, when I was growing up, only wore sarees, didn’t cut their hair short, and worked only as teachers if they worked at all,” she recalls. But in her case, her progressive father became a key ally. “I was the first girl to go to an English medium convent school. My Dad encouraged me to work, though he wasn’t thrilled when I chose the hospitality industry over a job at The Statesman.”

These early experiences galvanised her belief in the need for an extra push to help women in society find their voice. “I’ve always been inspired by talents yet to find their voice, and working for the upliftment of women was an easy choice,” Dey mentions.

Two and a half years ago, this drive led her to connect with Ladies Who Lead (LWL), a platform founded by Abha Bakaya for young women entrepreneurs and professionals. “LWL creates a safe space for women to share, learn, and win,” she explains. Through LWL, she met Anna Roy, the dynamic driving force behind WEP. “Anna’s energy was infectious,” she says, describing her decision to become a mentor and collaborate on a project with WEP as a natural next step. Dey shares that she also mentors women through other organisations to empower the next generation of female leaders.

Her mentorship efforts

Leadership and mentorship are critical drivers of success, and Deepa stands out as the most credible mentors for several leaders in the industry.

Highlighting on her motivation, she shares, “During my time in my corporate career, I have had the privilege of having a mentor and a coach and have also mentored others. It has been a wonderful experience. Mentoring to me is both ‘giving’ and ‘getting’ – I have learned so much about myself through these mentoring journeys.”

Currently mentoring four women at different stages of their careers and personal lives, her approach is multifaceted. She elaborates, “In addition to mentoring for Comms, I am also doing business mentorship, career mentoring, and having personal development conversations.”

Her mentorship initiatives encompass various platforms, including GWPR, SCORe, and Talentnomics, through which she consistently guides and inspires the next generation of leaders. Sharing the rewards of her efforts, she briefs, “I have learned as much as I’ve imparted during these sessions. It’s fulfilling to witness their growth and confidence blossom.”

Her plans for the next phase of life

As Dey looks ahead to the next chapter of her life and career, she envisions a future built on what she describes as a ‘portfolio approach,’ likening it to building with LEGO blocks. “Every chapter of life has its own challenges and rewards – I am currently focusing on the latter,” she shares.

Explaining her unique anagram, LEGO, she elaborates:

• Learning: Upskilling. Learning something new and inspiring, even if it's just for fun.
• Earning: This is easy to explain because we all have bills to pay!
• Giving: Paying it forward is very joyful and necessary for me at this stage.
• One-life living: Doing things that I did not have the time or the courage to do.

Her message to women entrepreneurs and communications professionals

Sharing a powerful message to women entrepreneurs and communication professionals, Deepa urges, “Embrace what is coming your way. Communication, as we know it now, will morph into something different. In order to stay in the game, some changes will be required.”

She advises that success in today’s environment demands an open mind and a willingness to evolve, and guides the professionals to follow the adapt to the following changes:

• Focus on clear segmentation yet understand the interconnectedness in the world you live and work in.
• Embrace tech as an enabler and not as an inhibitor.
• Collaborate. Collaborate. Collaborate. Let ideas flow. Break silos. Don’t be territorial.
• Be simple. Be detail oriented.
• Be “fact checkers” and not the “fiction-makers”

Acknowledging the unpredictability of the future, she mentions, "For the first time in a long time, predicting the future is becoming difficult (see the exit polls!). It hence belongs to no one. It therefore belongs to everyone – at least to those who can reign it as ‘controlled chaos.’” She concludes by highlighting the importance of empathy and balance, urging all the professionals to “Lead with empathy. BE KIND." She also emphasises " Have fun – work smart and party hard – because nothing is promised.”