Who Is Colette Kress? – The New Interim CEO of Nvidia

Colette Kress is the new interim CEO of NVIDIA, following the announcement of Jensen Huang’s resignation on 12 November 2026. Having served as the company’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since 2013, Colette takes on the interim leadership role while retaining her existing responsibilities. NVIDIA’s board is now searching for a permanent successor, considering both internal and external candidates.

For businesses following developments in artificial intelligence, her appointment brings an experienced technology finance leader into focus. With a career spanning NVIDIA, Cisco, Microsoft and Texas Instruments, Colette offers a commercial perspective on the investment, infrastructure and leadership required to support technological change.

Colette Kress’s Key Career Achievements:

• 2026 – Appointed interim CEO of NVIDIA.
• 2026 – Ranked 49th on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women list.
• 2026 – Co-authored NVIDIA’s article introducing its AI infrastructure financing model.
• 2025 – Ranked 44th on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women list.
• 2025 – Included in Forbes’ 50 Over 50: Investment list.
• 2024 – Ranked 16th on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women list.
• 2024 – Named a winner of Chief’s The New Era of Leadership awards.
• 2024 – Won Best IR by a Senior Management Team (Large Cap) alongside Jensen Huang at the IR Magazine Awards – US.
• 2020 – Participated in NVIDIA’s virtual fireside chat with Jeff Fisher.
• 2013 – Joined NVIDIA as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
• 2010 – Appointed Senior Vice President and CFO of Cisco’s Business Technology and Operations Finance organisation.
• 2006 – Became CFO of Microsoft’s Server and Tools division.
• 1997 – Joined Microsoft.

• 1996 – Completed an MBA at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business.

How Colette Kress Became Interim CEO of NVIDIA:

Colette Kress is a technology business executive whose career combines financial leadership with experience supporting large organisations through growth and change. Before becoming NVIDIA’s interim CEO, she spent more than a decade leading its finance organisation as the company expanded its role in accelerated computing and artificial intelligence.

Colette holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the University of Arizona and an MBA from Southern Methodist University. Her early career included finance positions at Texas Instruments, followed by 13 years at Microsoft. During that time, she held senior corporate planning and finance roles and spent four years as Chief Financial Officer of the Server and Tools division.

Before joining NVIDIA, Colette spent three years at Cisco as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of its Business Technology and Operations Finance organisation. Her responsibilities covered financial strategy, planning, reporting and business development across business segments, engineering and operations. When NVIDIA announced her appointment in September 2013, she already had approximately 24 years of technology industry experience.

Her appointment as interim CEO marks a significant expansion of her leadership responsibilities. In its official CEO transition announcement, NVIDIA highlighted her understanding of its customers, operations and financial position. The board also stated that it expected customer commitments, operations and the product roadmap to continue without interruption during the transition.

Source: NVIDIA

What Can Business Leaders Learn from Colette Kress?

For corporate leaders, Colette’s previous interviews offer insight into the practical demands of adopting artificial intelligence. Her discussions connect computing technology with investment decisions, operational planning and the work required to turn AI applications into usable business services.

In a 2024 interview with The Next Platform, Colette explained the importance of software in helping organisations move to accelerated computing. She also discussed planning for growth and allocating investment towards applications that can improve productivity. For businesses developing an AI strategy, these observations highlight the need to consider implementation, ongoing support and commercial priorities alongside the technology itself.

In her May 2026 Yahoo Finance video interview, Colette discussed NVIDIA’s results, demand for AI computing and the opportunities surrounding its Blackwell and Vera Rubin platforms. The conversation provides an opportunity to hear her explain the relationship between technological development and business growth.

Her perspective also extends to the financing of AI infrastructure. In a July 2026 article co-authored with Raj Mirpuri, Colette outlined NVIDIA’s approach to supporting AI cloud providers through a revenue-sharing and credit-support model. The article explores a challenge relevant to organisations scaling AI: securing access to computing capacity as applications move into production.

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