Colette Kress takes Nvidia’s helm after Jensen Huang resigns

Following Jensen Huang’s resignation, Colette Kress becomes Nvidia’s interim CEO. Harvey C. Jones is named its first board chair.

Thirty-three years after Nvidia was founded, its co-founder is leaving both management and the board of directors. The leadership transition announcement confirms Jensen Huang’s resignation as president, chief executive officer, and board member, effective immediately. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress takes over as interim CEO, while Harvey C. Jones becomes the company’s first-ever board chair.

The Form 8-K filed with the SEC, reproduced by ADVFN, states that the board accepted the resignation on November 11. The public announcement followed on November 12. This timeline adds to the information available earlier in the day, when news reports still described deliberations over whether Huang would remain in his role. The published documents characterize his departure as a resignation and do not detail the discussions preceding it.

Appointing an existing executive provides immediate continuity. Having joined the company in September 2013, Colette Kress retains her positions as executive vice president and chief financial officer while serving as interim CEO. The board is beginning a search for a permanent successor and will consider both internal and external candidates. No deadline has been given for that appointment.

Her professional background is primarily in finance. Before joining Nvidia, she led finance for Cisco’s Business Technology and Operations organization, with responsibilities spanning financial strategy, planning, and business performance. She previously spent 13 years at Microsoft, including four as CFO of its Server and Tools division, after holding several finance positions at Texas Instruments.

The board chair position goes to another longtime figure at the company. According to his official biography, Harvey C. Jones has served as a director since 1993. A former CEO and executive chairman of Synopsys, he has been managing partner of the private investment firm Square Wave Ventures since 2004. His appointment now explicitly separates the board chair role from the CEO position temporarily held by Colette Kress.

In the announcement, the new chair expresses the board’s confidence in the leadership team and says he expects operations, customer commitments, and the product roadmap to continue without interruption. The interim CEO says she intends to continue advancing the company’s work in accelerated computing and AI. These statements establish an intention to maintain continuity; they include no announced changes to commercial or technology priorities.

The November 17 financial reporting schedule remains unchanged. Third-quarter fiscal 2027 results are expected at approximately 1:20 p.m. Pacific Time, followed by an earnings call at 2 p.m. Those times correspond to 10:20 p.m. and 11 p.m. in mainland France. The presentation will take place under the new leadership, with Colette Kress holding both the chief executive and chief financial officer roles.

The governance decision leaves unresolved the questions examined over the past several days. The board’s November 8 statement assigned independent directors to investigate reports that Jensen Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence effort. On November 10, those directors retained Joon H. Kim and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to conduct the investigation.

The transition announcement presents no findings from that investigation. It thanks the founder for his contributions to the company but includes no statement from him. His departure from management and the board is confirmed, without establishing that information was disclosed or that any compromise occurred.