From WIRED · Lauren Goode · · 1m 40s
Nvidia's CFO takes over as interim CEO
Colette Kress replaces Jensen Huang following his resignation over an affair with a woman US officials believe is a Chinese intelligence asset.
In brief
Colette Kress replaces Jensen Huang following his resignation over an affair with a woman US officials believe is a Chinese intelligence asset. Nvidia's board named CFO Colette Kress interim CEO after founder Jensen Huang resigned amid a scandal involving a suspected Chinese intelligence asset. Originally reported by…
Huang out, Kress in
Nvidia's board announced Thursday that CFO Colette Kress is interim CEO following Jensen Huang's resignation.
Board backs Kress
Harvey Jones, Nvidia's newly appointed board chair, said Kress has helped lead the company through extraordinary growth and has deep understanding of its business, customers, operations and financial position.The board has full confidence in her.
The obvious choice
Kress was among the most obvious candidates to replace Huang, given her long tenure at Nvidia since two thousand thirteen, credibility on Wall Street and across the tech industry, and deep familiarity with the company's…
More than a numbers person
Patrick Moorhead, founder and chief analyst at Moor Insights and Strategies, says Kress has operated as much more than a numbers CFO.
“She has credibility with investors because she answers hard questions directly.”
Huang's vision recruit
Before joining Nvidia, Kress spent more than two decades in finance roles at Microsoft, Cisco and Texas Instruments.
Other candidates passed over
Other potential successors included Ian Buck, a more than twenty year Nvidia veteran who created the company's software platform CUDA, and Jeff Fisher, who joined Nvidia in nineteen ninety four.
A different leadership style
While Kress is incredibly sharp and can step into the CEO role immediately, she lacks the engineering and technical expertise Huang brought and has shied away from being at the center of public attention.
The key point
Nvidia's board named CFO Colette Kress interim CEO after founder Jensen Huang resigned amid a scandal involving a suspected Chinese intelligence asset.
