Hat trick complete: XFX sales guru moves to nVidia

Having found out that Miodrag Relic moved from EVGA to Asus and Iain Bristow from Asus to AMD, we had spent a while looking for a 3rd move to put this hat-trick of new year transfers together. We've found it, but it isn't the one we needed to complete the album. KitGuru explains.

Absolutely amazing would have been for an AMD marketing bod to move across to EVGA – but no such luck for Andrew Han, well not yet anyway.

So what has happened?

Well, if we roll the clock back a couple of years of so, XFX was nVidia's golden partner. With Marnie Sutton and Cy Brown driving the brand forward, the biggest/baddest and, arguably, best nVidia cards came in cool looking X-shaped boxes.

Then, staring into the gap in nVidia's roadmap (for example, DX11), XFX announced that it would also start to stock Radeons. When the announcement hit the world's tech press on 16th December 2008, it was met with incredulity. Although Asus and MSI had previously moved across to ATI several years earlier, XFX was considered to be in a ring-fenced group of highly supported companies alongside Gainward, BFG and EVGA who would never consider touching the red logo.

The argument from nVidia is that its cards are the best available and that being 100% loyal gives you access to a massive marketing machine. From the partners, the argument is that nVidia already invests bit into Asus, MSI and Gigabyte – all of whom sell both brands – so why shouldn't other companies be allowed to grow according to market demand. Interesting stuff.

Almost immediately, relations cooled between nVidia and XFX. Around October 13th 2010, the announcement came that the divorce was final and there was no going back. All this despite what you can still read on nVidia's web site.

So where does that leave today's headline?

Well, it looks like post-Fermi-launch nVidia wanted to re-stoke the boiler, get the workers all fired up and start to bring market share back to Jen Hsun in Santa Clara. Part of that meant revamping their staff. KitGuru understands that the head of European Sales role was made available and, if the rumours are to be believed, Matthew Wright from XFX started his new role with nVidia today.

Are we 100% sure it will happen?  Pretty much. Are we 100% sure that he has started?  Almost, just noticing that his LinkedIn page still shows him as a loyal XFX employee. We'll watch for updates. [Does that mean there's a job going at XFX? – Ed]

KitGuru says: Historically, nVidia is known for having great product but less than friendly staff. By taking somene as well loved in the industry as Matt on board, maybe they can move the nVidia brand a little closer to the ‘warm feeling' zone. Good luck to all concerned.

Comment below or in the KitGuru forum.

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