(10/25) Brainfood Speaker Series with Endeavor Feat. Frank Azor

Schedule:
6:30-7:00pm – Registration & Networking
7:00-7:30pm – Keynote Interview
7:30-8:00pm – Audience Q&A
8:00-8:30pm – Wrap-up & Networking
 
(Speaker) Frank Azora
Hired in 1998 as Alienware’s fourth employee, Frank Azor now oversees Dell’s premium consumer business units under the brands of Alienware and XPS.
Frank joined Alienware as a quality engineer and later held executive roles in sales and marketing before creating the Alienware Product Group organization in 2003-after helping to pioneer the industry’s first high-performance gaming notebook, the Area-51M. Later that year, he was credited with the successful launch of Alienware’s first self-designed desktop case (Predator) which immediately made industry headlines and has defined the look of Alienware’s products ever since.  Prior to Dell’s acquisition of Alienware in 2006, Frank held the positions of Senior Vice-President of Product Group and Marketing and Executive Vice-President managing the global executive leadership team and reporting directly to the President and CEO.  Shortly after helping lead Alienware’s successful integration into Dell, Frank assumed the role of worldwide general manager for the Alienware business unit.  Under Frank’s leadership, Alienware’s brand has become the worldwide leader in its industry and has earned over 200 editor’s choice awards for its products including multiple best of CES product awards.
In 2014, Frank’s role was expanded to include global responsibility for Dell’s XPS business unit, one of the company’s most innovative and valued brands.  Since assuming responsibility for the XPS business unit for Dell, Frank instituted a new product and business strategy that led to the successful introduction of the highly acclaimed XPS 13 notebook which has won over 100 awards since its introduction at CES 2015 and has been deemed the best 13” notebook on the market from numerous outlets including Forbes and the Wall Street Journal.  On top of the product accomplishments, Frank’s leadership has reinstated rapid growth for Dell’s XPS business.
(Moderator) Thomas “Tigre” Wenrich 
Tigre recently joined The LAB Miami family as CEO of LAB 305, the new Incubator created to build new products, test them in the market, and leverage our corporate partners to turn them into businesses.
Tigre is also an active angel investor and a mentor to several local emerging technology companies, having invested in more than two dozen startups. He is the Lead Director at LiveNinja, an enterprise software platform for video chat, and serves on the Board of Pecan Grove Farms, an Austin, TX-­‐based ranch and nursery. He is also a mentor for Endeavor Global.
In 2009 Tigre joined Andres Moreno as the Founding COO and CFO of Open English, growing the company from commercial launch to over $50M in annual revenues and creating a massive consumer brand. Today Open English is the leading on-­‐line language school in the Americas, having helped nearly 500,000 students to learn English over the internet. Under Tigre’s
leadership, Open English raised over $120M of Venture Capital in four rounds of investment from firms including Redpoint, Insight, and Technology Crossover Ventures.
Tigre began his career as a strategy consultant with The Boston Consulting Group, where he spent 16 years as a partner in the US, Spain and Mexico. Later, from 2006 to 2009, he built a chain of 20 check cashing and PayDay Loan stores in Miami, which he purchased in an MBO and subsequently sold to a larger competitor. He was also a founding investor and Board member of Proteak, a large Latin American forestry business which listed on the Mexican stock exchange in 2010.
Tigre holds a B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University and is fluent in Spanish and English.