SAN FRANCISCO — Blanc & Otus CEO Joshua Reynolds is stepping down to join a Silicon Valley startup, meanwhile Annemiek Hamelinck is taking over as general manager.

Reynolds’ last day is tomorrow, but he will continue to act as an advisor — under contract — on existing and new business for sister agency H+K Strategies and B&O. Reynolds took over as CEO of the WPP-owned B&O in 2013, tasked with reviving the tech boutique. Prior to that he was global head of tech for H+K. 

On Monday, Hamelinck — who has been working with B&O since last fall— takes on the newly-created role of general manager of the agency’s 36-person San Francisco operation, reporting to H+K Americas CEO/president Mike Coates. B&O also has a limited footprint in Boston and New York. A search for a CEO is underway. 

During Reynolds' tenure, B&O saw notable growth — despite losing one of its anchor clients, Oracle, earlier this year. Oracle dropped B&O as its longtime agency of record,in favor of a team WPP model led by Burson-Marsteller in which B&O plays a role.

“We didn’t have to make a single layoff [after the Oracle loss],” Reynolds told the Holmes Report. Instead, he says the firm is on track to exceed its growth targets for the year and has won on a slew of clients, including: Pluribus Networks, G2 Crowd, AirGrub and Bunchball and hired 10 people since the start of the year. 

“The company is in really good shape,” Reynolds said. He declined to name his new company — which is neither a B&O nor H+K client — at this time. While the company plans to make a formal announcement in coming weeks, Reynolds was able to disclose that his new role is a head of marketing position for an early stage analytics startup based in Silicon Valley.
 
Hamelinck has been working with B&O on several projects for about a year. Before this, she was head of InkHouse’s San Francisco operation (which she parted ways with last summer) and previously was SVP at Waggener Edstrom, in addition to stints at Bite and the Antenna Group. 

“I’d like to continue to keep things going that Josh set into motion,” Hamelinck said. “Blanc & Otus has such a strong heritage in tech and I hope to continue building that.”