Nvidia names Colette Kress interim CEO, Harvey C. Jones as board chair

Nvidia has handed the keys to its finance chief. Colette Kress, the company’s chief financial officer, is now interim CEO, and she will keep her CFO role at the same time.

The move came on November 12, 2026, after founder and CEO Jensen Huang resigned with immediate effect. The board also named Harvey C. Jones as Nvidia’s first-ever Chair of the Board, a governance change as notable as the CEO swap itself.

What changed at the top

Kress has been Nvidia’s executive vice president and CFO since September 2013. Under the board’s plan, she will run the company on an interim basis while continuing to oversee its finances until a permanent successor is found.

Her résumé leans heavily on finance. She brings nearly 25 years of experience at major companies, including Cisco and Microsoft, before her long run at Nvidia.

Jones has sat on Nvidia’s board since 1993, the same year Huang founded the company, and he is an experienced technology executive in his own right.

His new title matters because Nvidia has never had a board chair before. Creating the role now separates oversight of the board from day-to-day management, at least on paper.

Huang’s departure reportedly followed allegations of personal misconduct. His resignation ends a tenure as chief executive that spanned more than two decades, stretching back to the company’s founding.

The board’s message: stay calm, keep shipping

The board has said it has full confidence in Kress and the existing leadership team to keep operations running smoothly through the transition.

It has also started looking for a permanent CEO. The search is expected to consider candidates both inside Nvidia and from outside the company.

Markets were already uneasy before the official word arrived. Reports ahead of the announcement pointed to volatility in Nvidia’s stock tied to uncertainty over leadership and the allegations surrounding Huang.

Why the founder factor makes this tricky

Nvidia’s case is especially high-profile. The company sits at the center of the artificial intelligence buildout, and its leadership choices get read as signals about the broader AI hardware market.

Huang’s two-decade run as CEO made him one of the most recognizable executives in technology.

Kress is well known to Wall Street from years of earnings calls and investor meetings.

What this means for investors and the company

The immediate question is focus. Running a company of Nvidia’s scale is demanding, and so is managing its finances. Asking one executive to do both, even for a limited period, concentrates a heavy load in a single seat.

The new chair role deserves attention too. Splitting the chair from the CEO position is often viewed as a governance improvement, because it gives the board an independent leader to oversee management. Installing Jones, a director with more than three decades of history at Nvidia, offers institutional memory.

The circumstances of Huang’s exit add a reputational layer. How the company addresses the allegations, and how transparent it is about the process, could shape employee morale and public perception as much as any financial result in the coming quarters.

For now, Nvidia is betting that a veteran CFO and a founding-era director can steady the ship. The next big test is who the board ultimately picks to steer it.