For the past four years, whenever Crispin CEO Maggie Malek has had a question about the Stagwell-owned agency, she’s gone straight to Ben James, who was an art director there in the agency’s heyday in the early 2000s.
Eventually, one of those calls for counsel turned into a new role for James as Crispin’s chief creative officer.
“He was like, ‘Why don’t we just finally make it official?’” Malek said. “It came about really naturally and organically, and it’s been fun because we speak each other’s language.”
James, who joined in August, replaces Kim Baskinger, who spent about six months in the role.
