Razer said on Thursday that VoodooPC founder Rahul Sood has joined the company as an advisor to the Razer board of directors. He will provide strategic counsel on all aspects of Razer's business, from global operations to sales, marketing and product development, to help evolve the Razer brand here in the States as well as abroad.
"I'm a fan of Rahul's work at VoodooPC, and it is our shared passion for PC gaming and technological innovation that makes his involvement with Razer so relevant and exciting," says Min-Liang Tan, Razer CEO. "In fact, it was his work at VoodooPC that inspired us to enter the systems business, and I believe his advice will be invaluable to us here at Razer."
Razer is best known for its PC gaming peripherals, but the company has recently taken larger steps into a hardware-based market with the introduction of its Razer Blade gaming laptop and the just launched Razer Edge tablets. Sood's involvement seems to indicate that Razer plans to continue on this path, producing top-notch solutions on both sides of the PC gaming spectrum.
Voodoo PC was originally founded by Sood back in 1991, and built a reputation of providing premier, specialized PCs for gamers. The company employed around 40 people before Hewlett-Packard swooped in and acquired the gaming rig builder for an undisclosed amount in 2006. He left the company in 2010, and by February 2013, HP had discontinued the sale of VoodooPC products and shut down the official website.
Sood is noted as being first to bring fanless PC technology, liquid cooling and active liquid chilling to the market. Since his departure from HP, he has gone on to become the general manager of interactive entertainment business at Microsoft. As of late he has been responsible for leading Microsoft's global startups team, which includes startup accelerators in China, India, Israel and Seattle, and the Bing Fund based in Bellevue, Washington.
Now Sood is playing advisor to Razer's board of directors. "Razer is an extraordinary company in an enviable position and I'm really excited to join the business at such an exciting time in its history," says Sood. "I have admired Razer for many years. Moreover, the executive leadership is both inspired and inspiring. I see Razer as the spiritual successor to our previous work at VoodooPC."
Razer gaming desktops, anyone?