Nvidia’s longtime financial chief Colette Kress will become the chipmaking giant’s interim chief executive after Jensen Huang resigned on Thursday over his affair with an alleged Chinese spy.
In addition to serving as interim CEO while the company searches for a permanent replacement, the 59-year-old Kress will keep her roles as chief financial officer and executive vice president, Nvidia said in a Thursday statement.
Kress has been the company’s CFO and EVP since joining in September 2013. During her tenure, she has led the company’s finance organization and “has played a key role in NVIDIA’s growth and evolution,” the company said.
Prior to joining Nvidia, Kress spent nearly 25 years in finance roles at leading technology companies.
After a brief stint at Cisco Systems and a long 13-year tenure at Microsoft which included four years as CFO of the Server and Tools division, Kress joined Nvidia ni 2013, helping spearhead supplier partnerships.
Her young, video game-loving sons convinced her to join the company, which was dominating the PC gaming market at the time, she told Israeli news outlet Globes in 2023.
Kress replaced interim CFO Karen Burns, who succeeded Nvidia’s CFO David White after he left for personal reasons.
At the time, analysts told Reuters that a new CFO would not have that much of an impact on the company given how strong of a leader Huang was.
“When you have a very strong CEO, as Nvidia does, the strategy and direction very clearly comes from the corner office, so a CFO change is not indicative of an inflection point in the direction of the company,” said RBC Capital analyst Doug Freedman to the outlet.
Kress’ decision paid off in spades — she’s one of the richest self-made women in the US, with a net worth of $1.2 billion as of June, according to Forbes. Though Nvidia stock has taken a beating in recent days, her shares are worth more than $800 million, and she rake in $14.3 million in compensation last year, according to the Wall Street Journal.
We are “in good shape to bring this to market in the second half of the year,” Kress said at a tech event earlier this year, according to Barron’s. There is a “tremendous amount of demand for both for AI and accelerated computing.”
Now, Kress will have the task of easing investors’ fears during a massive crisis for the company.
“Colette has helped lead NVIDIA through a period of extraordinary growth and has a deep understanding of our business, customers, operations and financial position,” said Harvey Jones, Chair of the NVIDIA Board of Directors adding the the board has “full confidence” in Kress.
Kress has a master’s degree from Southern Methodist University and a bachelor’s from University of Arizona. She currently lives in Saratoga, California.
Her husband, David Kress, is former Microsoft leader who got his start in the mailroom in 1987. The couple reportedly met in Silicon Valley and have two children together. One of her sons, Matthew Kress, is a golfer with PGA Tour America and University of Florida alum.
“NVIDIA’s strength has always come from its people, and together with our leadership team, I am committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years,” Kress said in a statement.
“We will continue advancing the work that has made NVIDIA a leader in accelerated computing and AI, and execute on the opportunities ahead. Our focus remains on serving our customers, partners, developers and shareholders.”
Kress voiced a forward-looking mentality in a 2016 interview with the Journal.
“The best thing I could tell any type of CFO coming in: Be careful how much time you spend thinking about the trends that you’ve seen in the past and have a good understanding of how quickly things could move going forward,” she said.
