It flew under the radar a bit, but just over a month ago Husani Oakley left San Fran digital agency EVB to head back east and launch his own eponymous shop, Oakley & Partners.
Now we have a little bit more insight to go on as Oakley’s reached out to discuss his new gig. Having spent close to two years at Evolution Bureau, most recently as VP, technology and production, he tells us that it was just time to take the lead. “I’ve done the agency thing and non-ad startup thing for a while and if I wanted to work 24 hours a day, I might as well be able to lead things directly than with a group of people.” The client roster for O&P–which Oakley says consists of four staffers that can grow to six or seven with freelancers–currently includes Mickey D’s, The Game Agency and PayPal according to the shop’s site. While he remains hush-hush for now about specific projects, Oakley says the idea is to create “FWA-style work, heavy Flash stuff.”
According to EVB’s CEO Daniel Stein, Oakley’s decision to leave didn’t come as a shock. “I learned early with Husani that he has strong entrepreneurial spirit and a strong love for New York. I think I always knew that he would be moving back to NYC to start his own gig. We’ve actually known for months that Husani was leaving. We have been transitioning him off of projects over time. But he will also be consulting with the company in the coming months on a big project we are working on with KTG in New York.”
Stein reveals that Oakley, who also co-founded cultural event newsletter Flavorpill and was director, technology at Euro RSCG for a time, barely made his trip back to the Big Apple. “Husani nearly died on his last day at EVB. He was outside smoking a cigarette on the sidewalk when a taxi careened into a parked car at 50mph. The parked car slammed into 4 other cars and they all wound up on the sidewalk about 10 feet from Husani. The head of a parking meter snapped off and hit Husani in the arm, bruising him pretty badly. He was super lucky.” How’s that for an anti-smoking ad, kids?