Nvidia hands interim leadership to Colette Kress after Huang resigns
Jensen Huang has left Nvidia’s top executive roles and board, bringing a leadership transition to the chipmaker he cofounded. Finance chief Colette Kress will run the company temporarily while retaining her existing job. The board is looking inside and outside Nvidia for a permanent replacement and has appointed its first chair to oversee the next phase.
Artificial Intelligence··Midday
Kress takes both executive roles
Nvidia announced on 12 November that cofounder Jensen Huang had resigned as president, chief executive and a board member, effective immediately. The board accepted his resignation the previous day, according to the regulatory filing cited by TechCrunch. Colette Kress, the company’s finance chief and executive vice president, becomes interim chief executive while continuing to run finance. Her appointment gives Nvidia a temporary leader as the board begins its search for a permanent successor.[1], [2]
A new chair oversees the transition
Harvey C. Jones takes the newly created position of board chair. A Nvidia director since 1993, Jones previously led chip-design software company Synopsys and is a managing partner at Square Wave Ventures. The search for a permanent chief executive will consider candidates from within and outside Nvidia. Kress joined the chipmaker in 2013 after finance leadership work at Cisco and Microsoft. The board says the company’s operations, product roadmap and customer commitments will continue during the handover.[1], [3]
A founder-led company changes hands
Huang had led Nvidia from its founding in 1993 through its expansion from gaming graphics into computing for neural networks. The transition brings that long founder-led period to an end. TechCrunch describes an organization in which many executives reported directly to Huang and no obvious successor had been designated. The immediate changes concern who runs the company and who chairs its board. Nvidia has yet to name the permanent chief executive or give a date for that appointment.[1]
