Colette Kress runs Nvidia as interim chief executive and Harvey Jones chairs the board, while the search for a permanent successor to Jensen Huang begins. Nvidia said on November 12 that Huang resigned as president, chief executive and director, effective at once, with CFO Colette Kress as interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent successor, and Harvey C. Jones as the board first chair.
Why it matters
The pair face very different jobs. Kress, the long serving finance chief, must steady the business, present the earnings on November 17 and keep the customers and the cash flows moving. Jones, the first chair the board has ever had, must run the search and reshape a governance structure that had no chair and a lead director at its centre for years.
The board has hired an outside search firm, according to Bloomberg, and no candidates have been named. The choice will signal whether the board wants continuity or a clean break, because Huang founded the company, ran it for 33 years and owned about 3.6 percent of it as its largest shareholder. An outsider would mark a break, while an insider would suggest continuity.
What happens next
The politics will not wait for the search. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott has asked Huang and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify, and Huang has agreed to brief House lawmakers before Thanksgiving. President Trump said Apple chief executive Tim Cook should take the job, although nothing suggests the board is considering that.
For now, the interim team has the company and the board has the search. The first test comes on Tuesday, when Kress presents the quarterly results without Huang beside her. How the market judges that presentation will shape how long the interim lasts, and how much freedom the board has to choose.
The governance structure is now under scrutiny. In its 2026 annual report, Nvidia said it believed the structure was to the benefit of shareholders, without the need to appoint a chairperson. As the company sheds hundreds of billions of dollars in market value, investors have realised that a few more checks on the powerful chief executive would not have gone amiss.
