Who is Colette Kress, Nvidia’s interim CEO? Career, style and what lies ahead

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Since Thursday, 12 November, Nvidia, the world’s most valuable chipmaker, has been run on an interim basis by Colette Kress. She has been its chief financial officer since 2013 and, according to the company’s release, she keeps that job too, combining both roles. I checked her career in the documents Nvidia files with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and collected what people who worked with her say about her style. Below: where she came from, what she did in 13 years at Nvidia and what she faces in the coming days.

Career: Texas Instruments, Microsoft, Cisco

The most detailed account of Kress’s career is in Nvidia’s annual report (Form 10-K, February 2026), in the section on executive officers. She started at Texas Instruments, a semiconductor company, where she spent eight years in various finance roles. In 1997 she moved to Microsoft and stayed for 13 years. From 2006 she was CFO of the Server and Tools division, the part of Microsoft that sold server software and developer tools, responsible for the division’s financial strategy, planning, reporting and business development.

In 2010 she joined Cisco, the networking equipment maker, as senior vice president and CFO of the Business Technology and Operations Finance organization. According to the 10-K, she was responsible there for finance across all business segments, engineering and operations. She joined Nvidia in September 2013 as executive vice president and CFO. In total, as Nvidia itself puts it, nearly 25 years in finance at major technology companies before she arrived.

Education: a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Arizona and an MBA from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

13 years at Nvidia: from 4 to 216 billion dollars

When Kress joined, Nvidia was known mainly for graphics cards for gamers. According to Reuters, Kress told Fortune it was the smallest company she had worked for. The annual reports confirm it. In fiscal 2014, the year she joined, Nvidia’s revenue was 4.13 billion dollars. In fiscal 2026, which ended in January 2026, it was 215.9 billion, more than 50 times as much.

A CFO’s role at a company like this is more than accounting. Every quarter Nvidia publishes a CFO Commentary on its results, a document attached to its SEC filing. It contains the outlook for the next quarter, which the whole market watches. In the August commentary the company said it expected third-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue of 108 billion dollars, plus or minus 2%, with no data center compute revenue from China, and a gross margin of 74%. Second-quarter revenue was 96.2 billion dollars, up 106% year on year.

On earnings calls, Kress was the company’s second voice next to Huang. According to CNBC, she reported the results and took analysts’ questions alongside him. In May 2026 Fortune named her one of the most powerful women in business (per CNBC), and according to Reuters, Forbes ranked her 32nd on its list of America’s richest self-made women.

Her style

To be fair: for 13 years Kress stood in the shadow of Huang, who was the face of Nvidia like few CEOs anywhere. In public she mostly talked about numbers. What is known about how she works comes from people who worked with her and from analysts.

CNBC spoke with nearly a dozen current and former colleagues. They describe her as savvy, knowledgeable, thoughtful and clear-headed. Dan Ives of Wedbush told CNBC she is the only one internally with that level of respect, “more than just a CFO”, and that Huang “didn’t do anything without her”. He called her Nvidia’s Swiss Army knife, involved with customers, partners and technology. Daniel Newman of Futurum Group says Kress deeply understands the business and has shown fierce loyalty to the company.

Kress’s first words as interim CEO are in Nvidia’s release of 12 November. She says Nvidia’s strength has always come from its people and that, with the leadership team, she is committed to building on the foundation Huang created over 33 years. The focus remains on customers, partners, developers and shareholders. The new chair, Harvey C. Jones, adds that the board has full confidence in her and the leadership team.

Pay and shares

Compensation data is in the proxy statement (DEF 14A, May 2026). In fiscal 2026 Kress’s total compensation was 14.34 million dollars, of which base salary was about 0.9 million; most of it was stock awarded for performance. According to the same document, as of 23 March 2026 she held 4.44 million Nvidia shares (partly in family trusts). Reuters valued her stake at about 750 million dollars at Wednesday’s close, down from over a billion at the stock’s October peak. Reuters also notes, citing the proxy, that Nvidia’s executive officers have no individual employment or severance agreements.

What she faces

• 17 November, third-quarter results. The first report under her leadership and, at the same time, a test of her own outlook from three months ago (108 billion dollars). The market will listen not only to the numbers but to what she says about the next quarter and the change at the top.
• Two jobs at once. Kress remains CFO until the board picks a permanent CEO. The company has more than 200 billion dollars in annual revenue, and according to its August quarterly report it has just begun shipping the new Vera Rubin architecture and is dealing with supply constraints.
• China and exports. In the same report Nvidia says H200 sales to China under the US government licensing program are less than 1% of data center revenue; these chips are inspected in the US before shipment and are subject to a 25% tariff on import into the United States. The Huang affair is about ties to China, so this is a topic Kress will be asked about.
• Congress. According to CNBC, Huang has agreed to testify before Congress before 26 November. The company has to go through that under new leadership.
• The share price. According to CNBC, Nvidia shares were heading this week for a sixth straight weekly decline, the longest such streak since 2012. How much of the fall is the Huang affair, I estimate in Nvidia down 31%: how much is the Huang affair and how much is the market?.

Will Colette Kress become Nvidia’s permanent CEO?

Unknown. According to Nvidia’s release, the board is looking for a permanent CEO among internal and external candidates. Dan Ives of Wedbush told CNBC he expects Kress to serve about a year and a permanent successor to come from outside. That is an analyst’s forecast, not a decision.

Was Kress involved in the Huang affair?

None of the sources I checked connects her to it. Huang’s resignation is covered here: Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia CEO; Colette Kress named interim chief.

How old is Colette Kress?

59, according to the Form 8-K Nvidia filed on 12 November 2026.

This is not investment advice. I give data and sources; decisions about shares are up to the reader.

All my articles on Nvidia and the Huang case, with a timeline, are in the Nvidia hub.

Kinetyra