Mr Michael Dell plans to step down as chief executive of his company in July to make way for chief operating officer Mr Kevin Rollins.
Mr Dell, who founded Dell Computer at Texas University 20 years ago and built it into the world's second-largest PC maker, will remain chairman, and the company said he would still be involved in its daily business.
The move reflects a trend among technology company founders to relinquish some control to successors.
Mr Bill Gates stepped aside to make room for Mr Steve Ballmer at Microsoft in January 2000, and earlier this year Mr Larry Ellison gave up his control of the board at software maker Oracle.
The changes left Mr Dell as one of the last of the tech company founders to give up full control, alongside Mr Scott McNealy, who has been chief executive and chairman of Sun Microsystems, the struggling high-end computer systems group, since 1984.
