Hasta La Creative!

Crispin Porter + Bogusky is making some management shifts at the dawn of 2014. Among the moves the Boulder-based, MDC-owned agency is the promotion of 10-year vet Steve Erich to president. In addition to Erich (pictured), who most recently served as partner/managing director at CP+B, the agency has also appointed Mike Saunter, a Warner Music/EMI alum, to chief operating officer while also moving one of its four original partners, Jeff Steinhour,  to the role of vice-chairman.

As for new prez Erich, after joining CP+B in 2004 to help relaunch the Burger King biz, the exec moved up the ladder to partner in 2008 and subsequently was appointed managing director two years ago. CP+B CEO Andrew Keller says in a statement, “Steve is a rare combination of incredible intelligence, reliability and great market knowledge with a proven ability to lead, unify and inspire both his team and our clients. Mike’s financial expertise and his experience in the music industry, a creative industry that is overflowing with opportunities yet in the midst of profound changes – as is our industry, will be invaluable to us. And Jeff is a key to continuing our culture, what makes us great and what continues to be the heartbeat of CP+B.”

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Lost in all the hullabaloo of Suzanne Powers‘ departure from CP+B and appointment as EVP/chief strategy officer at McCann is what’s happening on the former’s end in the wake of the move. Our bad. As you may have read, CP+B is restructuring its planning department (or COG department as they call it), axing the global strategy officer position formerly held by Powers to start with. According to CP+B camp, under the new structure, the COG departments in each of the agency’s offices will report to an executive planning director designated for said office. CP+B is kicking things off by promoting Jason De Turris and Benny Thomas to EPDs for Boulder and L.A., with Miami and Europe appointments to be announced at a later date.

In addition, CP+B has launched a new initiative called Mixed Reality Lab, which will be led by nine-year agency vet  Wojtek Szumowski, who currently holds the title of EVP/group director of cognitive and cultural studies. What is Mixed Reality Lab? Well, according to CP+B’s rather poetic description, it’s “designed to continue to question convention, to prototype, experiment and examine the relationships between humans, technology and brands.”

Regarding the planning revamp as a whole, CP+B CEO Andrew Keller says in a statement, “At CP+B, we are constantly reassessing our structure, ensuring that we are meeting and exceeding our clients’ needs in every capacity, and streamlining and redefining as we see fit. This new structure really speaks to where we are as an agency, and the innovation and global strategic insights that we offer our clients are best delivered in this redesign.”

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