Nvidia turns to CFO Kress to steady ship after Jensen Huang exit

While Nvidia Corp.’s board hunts for someone to permanently replace founder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang, it’s counting on Colette Kress — the company’s chief financial officer of 13 years and a longtime technology executive — to steady the ship.

Kress, 59, joined Nvidia in 2013 as CFO and executive vice president, long before the generative AI boom turned the company’s graphics processing units, or GPUs, into the most sought-after chips and sent its stock soaring by more than 2,000%. In many ways, she is the polar opposite of her former boss: shunning the spotlight, interacting with the financial world at mostly organized events and noticeably careful about what she says — only recently playing a more active public role in public events such as earnings conference calls.

In naming Kress as interim CEO, Nvidia is making a classic move for a company in crisis. Boards often turn to their CFOs for steady leadership while hunting for future leader.

“In this situation, the CFO is the best choice as an interim leader,” said Cathy Logue, a managing director and leader of the CFO and financial executives practice at executive search firm Stanton Chase. “No one has the same credibility and relationships as the CFO. In a time of crisis, you want to convey the message of stability and confidence, even though there’s tremendous instability right now.”

The timing isn’t ideal for Kress who has been preparing the company to report earnings, which had been expected to hit next week. Her appointment also comes less than three months before the end of the company’s fiscal year, an unusually hectic time for a CFO’s office.

But in the near term, “the board did the sensible thing and reached for a steward,” Mark Malek, chief investment officer at Siebert Financial said. “Colette Kress knows every number in that order book.”

Kress’ tenure at Nvidia is more than twice as long as that of the average CFO in the S&P 500 and Fortune 500, earning her credibility both internally and on Wall Street. Her track record means she’s “been involved in the whole evolution of the company,” Logue said, positioning her as the best chance at instilling some stability while the board recruits a permanent chief.

The job of filling Huang’s shoes represents a whole other challenge. To keep Nvidia’s momentum going, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh said, “you need a lot of things to go right, along with the product roadmap. It will be hard for someone to come in and execute like that.”