Frank Azor is leaving Alienware and Dell. After 21 years with the company, the co-founder and XPS lead is set to depart Dell for greener, or potentially redder, pastures. But this isn’t the last time gamers will be seeing Azor, rumour has it that the exec is shifting over to AMD to take up the chief gaming officer mantle.
Azor started with Alienware over two decades ago, back when the company was still rocking its infamous bright green extraterrestrial style, and would later follow the company through its merger with computing giant Dell in 2006. There he would not only oversee Alienware’s gaming brand but would also later adopt XPS, Dell’s professional range.
“I’ll be leaving Dell as of July 3 to take on a new challenge.” Azor writes in an Alienware Arena post.
“A little over 21 years ago, I met a couple of lunatics who had an idea they called Alienware. When I met them and learned about the company they were trying to build, I thought to myself, ‘This would be the coolest job ever.’ I was right, but none of us ever dreamed the brand would come this far – which is a result of all of you, your hard work and passion.”
The latest from WCCFTech – and its mysterious source – is that Azor’s “new challenge” will be at AMD. There he will oversee AMD’s efforts to corral gamers to the red team as chief gaming officer, and will report to Sandeep Chennakeshu, EVP of computing and graphics.
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We don’t know what this role will entail just yet, but AMD has been making a decisive push towards working alongside developers and publishers to aid in the development of future titles and further its initiatives for gamers.
AMD showed off a little of this at its E3 conference – during which it dived into the specifics on Ryzen 3000 and its RX 5700-series. And we might see Azor spearhead these efforts during his time at the company.
Azor would be a valuable asset for AMD, bringing a wealth of experience and expertise from his long tenure at a major OEM. And it’s about time AMD starting hiring execs out from other companies rather than losing them to Intel. Conveniently, both Dell and AMD are situated in Austin, Texas, too.
Or Azor is heading off someplace entirely different. We can’t say for sure just yet, but we’ll find out soon once his departure date of July 3 rolls around.