Stagwell’s CPB is rebranding to Crispin and naming Maggie Malek North America CEO and Steve Denekas as North American chief creative officer.

Malek takes over for Brad Simms, who held the global CEO post until January and had served in the role after Stagwell merged CPB with MMI, Vitro and Observatory last April. Malek joined Crispin as regional president a year ago and before that, served as CEO of Houston-based agency MMI.

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Crispin’s global CEO role remains unfilled. Simms left Crispin to return to focus on Stagwell sibling agency Gale, where he serves as president and CEO.

Denekas joins as chief creative officer from BASIC/DEPT, where he led creative teams as CCO and global senior VP, respectively. He will report to Malek and succeed Josh Braithwaite, who left Crispin to become managing director, creative, at Gale. 

The appointments follow six account wins in 2024, including Samsung, Georgia Pacific and Fannie Mae. Existing clients include Procter & Gamble, Treasury Wine Estates, Nature’s Sunshine and Wells Enterprises, the parent company of Blue Bunny Ice Cream and Halo Top.

Under Malek and Denekas, Crispin now has about 150 employees in North America, including in its offices in Los Angeles, Houston and New York, as well as scattered across Denver, San Diego, Minneapolis and Austin, Texas. The agency will operate as a unified structure for all clients without city-based teams, though those staffers near a hub will be required to work on a hybrid schedule. Malek will remain in Houston and Denekas will be based out of Los Angeles. 

A new (old) name 

Crispin is no stranger to name changes. Most recently, in 2018, it went from Crispin Porter + Bogusky to simply Crispin Porter Bogusky and changed its logo from CP+B to “CPB+.”

“Whenever we meet new clients, they call it Crispin. It just rolls off the tongue,” Malek said in an interview. “It’s also something you can pronounce globally, which we think is much more inclusive, and Steve and I are also big believers that creativity should come from everywhere within an organization.”

Crispin Porter + Bogusky traces its start back to 1965. That’s when Samuel Crispin, a World War II veteran who served in the U.S. Navy bought the agency where he worked, Arthur Mogge Advertising, and renamed it Samuel B. Crispin and Associates. The agency name was updated to Crispin & Porter in 1988 after Crispin named Chuck Porter creative director and partner. A year later, Alex Bogusky joined the agency. It was renamed Crispin, Porter & Bogusky in 1996, when Bogusky was named partner.

Bogusky helped vault the agency to numerous accolades in the early 2000s. Its roster of clients included Burger King, Domino’s, Gap and Microsoft. The agency was No. 1 among the agencies of the decade list Ad Age published in December 2009, after winning Ad Age’s Agency of the Year awards in 2004 and 2008. It had also won Creativity Agency of the Year four times in six years by late 2005. Its hot streak cooled off a bit after Bogusky left in 2010. He briefly returned from 2018 until early 2020, when CP+B was still owned by MDC Partners. (MDC and Stagwell merged in 2021.) 

“Crispin Porter + Bogusky was this agency that had such an incredible legacy of defining what it meant to be innovative or an interesting, creative company,” said Denekas. “They really defined the last 20 years. And [when I met] Maggie, she said to me ‘I’m looking for a partner to define the next 20.” 

Progressive policies

Merging MMI, Vitro and Observatory with CPB last year brought their specialties and a combined 300-plus employees at the time under one roof. Observatory specialized in creative brand entertainment and Vitro in creative and production. MMI focused on influencer, creator and media performance capabilities, while Crispin Porter + Bogusky brought legacy creative and advertising capabilities.

Since the merger of the four Stagwell shops, Crispin has introduced more progressive work policies, including 12 weeks of paid leave for all parents, pregnancy loss leave, coverage of up to six fertility treatment cycles for employees, flexible PTO and sick days, employee assistance for mental health programs and inclusive care benefits. 

Additionally, under Malek, who is a U.S. Army veteran, the agency has partnered with VetsinTech, a non-profit dedicated to supporting veterans (current and returning as well as their spouses) through tech-based programs and opportunities in education, employment, and entrepreneurship to hire veterans and develop training programs.