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The Nvidia board has decided to entrust the financial director (CFO) Colette Kress with the role of interim CEO, replacing the resigning Jensen Huang, ensuring that it has started the search for a new permanent CEO.
Nvidia announced that Kress has agreed to serve as interim CEO, pending the appointment of a permanent successor. The board has started the search for the next CEO, ensuring that it will consider both internal and external candidates. Harvey Jones has been appointed to lead the board.
Huang’s exit closes an era during which the visionary manager from Taiwan fueled the global boom in artificial intelligence, becoming a prominent geopolitical figure. The company has become one of the most valuable in the world in the technology sector.
Who is Colette Kress
Colette Kress is executive vice president and chief financial officer of Nvidia. She joined the company in September 2013, after nearly 25 years in various finance roles at large technology companies.
She previously served for three years as senior vice president and chief financial officer of Cisco’s Business Technology and Operations Finance organization, where she was responsible for financial strategy, planning, reporting and business development for all business segments, engineering and operations.
Before that, she spent 13 years at Microsoft, including four as CFO of the Server and Tools division, while also holding top positions in business planning and finance. He previously worked at Texas Instruments in various financial positions.
Kress holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Arizona and an MBA from Southern Methodist University.
From video game chips to the billionaires’ club
Born in 1967, Kress arrived at Nvidia when the company had been looking for a CFO for two years and was best known as a maker of video game chips. Since then she has accompanied the group’s transformation into one of the protagonists of artificial intelligence, and the run of the title has made her a billionaire: on 29 July 2025 the Bloomberg Billionaires Index included her for the first time among the assets exceeding one billion dollars, a wealth largely linked to Nvidia shares. He is among the very few financial directors in the world to have achieved this milestone.
Her weight is also recognized by international rankings: Forbes placed her at position 37 among the 100 most powerful women in the world in 2025, Fortune at 49 on its Most Powerful Women list in 2026. This year she also entered the Forbes ranking of the richest self-made women in America.
The double assignment and the first test
Kress will also continue to serve as chief financial officer until a permanent successor is appointed. “Colette has helped lead Nvidia through a period of extraordinary growth and has a deep understanding of our business, customers, operations and financial position,” Jones said. “Nvidia’s strength has always come from its people,” said Kress, “and together with our leadership team, I am committed to building on the extraordinary foundation that Jensen has created over the past 33 years.”
The first test comes immediately: Nvidia will present the results for the third quarter of fiscal 2027 on Tuesday 17 November, as already expected, followed by the conference call with analysts.