Young Consultant of the Year
Penny O’Donnell, a standout consultant at Capgemini Invent, is recognised for her thought-leadership on the future of AI‑native marketing and driving large‑scale, customer‑centric transformation for global organisations. She brings clarity to complexity, translating emerging digital and AI capabilities into actionable, business‑defining strategies.
An example of Penny’s influence is her role as co‑author and lead of Capgemini Invent’s flagship 2025 chief marketing officer (CMO) playbook: From Complexity to Clarity. She identified industry‑wide tensions – from AI adoption without return on investment (ROI) to outdated operating models and the growing need to market to both humans and algorithms. She then transformed these challenges into a clear, future‑focused strategic blueprint grounded in insights from more than 1,500 senior marketing executives. Within a week of launch, five major clients used the playbook and 1,400 marketers downloaded the report to shape their transformation strategy.
Penny also co‑developed frog UK’s Agentic AI in Marketing narrative: a framework helping organisations adopt agentic AI responsibly. It’s already being used by three high‑profile clients and was highlighted by a former CMO at a national industry event.
Penny has also delivered major transformations, including partnering closely with a vice president and director at Capgemini to shape a global operating model redesign for a leading FMCG brand. This saw more than 5,500 processes re‑engineered in two months and supported £150 million in expected annual savings.
Penny thrives on the variety and pace of consulting work, is passionate about helping create strategic change and has ambitions of ultimately becoming a vice president.
View the profile in the MCA Members Directory.