Following the sudden resignation of Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang, interim leadership of the company has passed to executive vice president and chief financial officer Colette Kress. She will also continue to serve in her current responsibilities while the board of directors finds a permanent successor.
Image Source: NVIDIA
Colette Kress worked at Nvidia for thirteen years. Even before her official appointment, Dan Ives, an analyst at Yorkville Ives & Co. named Kress in a conversation with CNBC the only person in the company who enjoys such high authority. “She is not just a CFO for the company; her role is more of a COO,” he said.
Huang, who co-founded Nvidia in 1993, was distinctive in that he ran the company without a clear “second party”: he personally identified priority projects and discussed their details directly with engineers via email.
However, according to Ives, Jensen did not make any decisions without her input.” “She is like a Swiss army knife for Nvidia: she participated in all strategic issues, be it working with clients, partners or technological aspects,” he emphasized.
Daniel Newman, CEO of Futurum Group, told CNBC that Kress “has a deep understanding of the business and demonstrates exceptional commitment to the company.” Nvidia employees, as well as those who have worked with Kress in the past, describe her as insightful, competent, thoughtful and thoughtful.
Kress joined Nvidia in September 2013, having previously held finance positions at Cisco, Microsoft and Texas Instruments. At Nvidia, she, along with Huang, answered questions from analysts during conference calls dedicated to financial results, being one of the key figures. In May, Kress was named one of Fortune magazine’s Most Powerful Women in Business.
“Nvidia’s strength has always been its people. “Together with our management team, I am committed to building on the exceptional foundation that Jensen has built over the past 33 years,” Kress said in a statement Thursday. “We will continue the work that has made Nvidia a leader in accelerated computing and artificial intelligence, and we will pursue the opportunities ahead of us.” Our main priority is the interests of clients, partners, developers and shareholders.”
Huang was not just the representative and “face” of Nvidia, but also the founder, whose name became synonymous with the brand itself. He also pioneered the AI chip industry, becoming a key figure in the multitrillion-dollar boom that has driven the US economy. Finding his successor will not be easy.
As Ives believes, an outsider will be invited. “We need someone with experience on the global stage,” he says. “Given the company’s importance not only to the US technology sector, but to the entire global economy.”
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