Intel hires marketing expert Heather Lennon, AMD Radeon Group veteran

[onetheycallEric]

What just happened? Intel isn't done absorbing talent for its graphics push, set to culminate in 2020 with Intel's Xe launch. As 2020 nears, marketing campaigns and community engagement will be increasingly more important. With the addition of Heather Lennon, Intel seems to be putting together a dream team of marketing experts to help drive its new graphics products.

Intel has brought yet another AMD stalwart under its banner, this time Heather Lennon. Lennon served as manager for AMD Radeon Technologies Group (RTG) marketing and communications. Lennon had been with AMD for 10 years and was responsible for the Radeon social media, website, rebranding, community engagement, and more.

Lennon will now join Intel as its manager for Digital Marketing and Graphics. She will reportedly be working closely with Mark Taylor, who is a former Nvidia employee now heading up technical marketing for Intel's graphics division. Lennon had a prestigious tenure at AMD, winning a PR Week award for Campaign of the Year 2014, in addition to 40 digital marketing awards for her work with AMD's marketing and strategy.

Lennon is far from the only one to receive an offer they couldn't refuse from team blue. She's joined by other former AMD/Nvidia veterans Raja Koduri, Chris Hook, Damien Triolet, and most recently, Tom Peterson.

I'm excited to share that I started a new career @intel today as Manager, Digital Marketing for @IntelGraphics #odyssey pic.twitter.com/xGO07bNRxv

— Heather J Lennon (@HeatherJLennon) April 8, 2019

Intel's investment in marketing and communications gurus like Lennon and Petersen come as Intel's Xe Graphics 2020 launch is looming, and Intel will undoubtedly want it to go off without a hitch. Intel also recently rolled out Odyssey, a community driven program Intel claims is a "passionate community, focused on improving graphics and visual computing for everyone, from gamers to content creators." It's hard to imagine Lennon's new role at Intel won't have something to do with Odyssey's outreach and engagement.

Intel's Xe Graphics will be far reaching, encompassing everything from integrated solutions, all the way up to discrete data center and gaming cards. At the forefront of Intel's renewed graphics focus is the new Gen 11 graphics engine. The new graphics architecture will make its debut with the 10nm Ice Lake chips and will significantly increase on-silicon graphics power.

Image credit: Intel concept graphics card by Cristiano Siqueira

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https://www.techspot.com/news/79579-intel-hires-marketing-expert-heather-lennon-amd-radeon.html

 

[Uncle Al]

Now they are starting to wise up .....

 

[tkabou]

Not that AMDs marketing department was anything to write home about. Rebrands (successful or not?) for the past 3-4 years isn't a winning strategy. Sure, skipping a generation can happen, but when your 7xxx series turn into 2xx, then 3xx, then 4xx, and finally 5xx series, you've got not just a marketing problem.

 

[erickmendes]

Not that AMDs marketing department was anything to write home about. Rebrands (successful or not?) for the past 3-4 years isn't a winning strategy. Sure, skipping a generation can happen, but when your 7xxx series turn into 2xx, then 3xx, then 4xx, and finally 5xx series, you've got not just a marketing problem.

I agree with you but I don't believe the marketing team have the final word on such decisions... Still AMD marketing wasn't the best. But also, rebrands are not an AMD exclusivity, is it?

Anyway, I hope Intel discrete GPUs don't come out as a dead fish, because a new competitor in the GPU segment could change the market a bit.