Colette Kress, who has managed Nvidia’s finances for more than a decade, is taking temporary charge of the company, Nvidia announced on Thursday. She replaces Jensen Huang as head of the semiconductor firm, whose chips are the engine behind today’s most advanced supercomputers and artificial intelligence data centers.

Her promotion comes after Nvidia’s directors removed Huang, who co-founded the company, following reports that he was involved in two extramarital relationships. One of the women has been accused of spying for China.

Below are five key points about the executive now running the company.

A Steady Hand On The Books Since 2013

Kress came to Nvidia in September 2013, taking on the dual title of executive vice president and chief financial officer, and has remained in the job throughout. Investors know her well from the company’s quarterly results calls, where she has routinely appeared next to Huang. Her time at the firm has coincided with explosive growth: annual sales stood at $4.13 billion in the fiscal year she was hired and climbed to $215.9 billion by fiscal 2026.

Decades At Tech Industry Heavyweights

Her early career was spent at Texas Instruments, where she held finance positions for eight years. She then moved to Microsoft, staying from 1997 until 2010. In 2006, Microsoft made her finance chief of its Server and Tools unit, a role that put her in charge of the division’s financial planning, strategy and reporting. Cisco hired her in 2010 as a senior vice president and the top finance officer for its Business Technology and Operations Finance group, where she oversaw strategy and business development. She left Cisco for Nvidia in 2013.

Arizona And SMU Graduate

Nvidia’s annual report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lists her degrees as a bachelor of science in finance from the University of Arizona and an MBA from Southern Methodist University. By the time she arrived at Nvidia, she had spent close to 25 years in finance at large technology companies, according to a 2024 Fortune profile. In that interview, she noted that Nvidia was, at the time, the smallest employer of her career.

No Golden Parachute

Nvidia does not sign individual contracts with its top executives, according to its proxy statement. Its senior officers work on an at-will basis, without severance deals or protections tied to a change in control, even though the company has acknowledged in earlier filings that many rivals provide such arrangements. A large part of Kress’s pay comes in the form of restricted stock units, including a grant made in March 2026 that will vest over a four-year period.

A Fortune Built On Nvidia Stock

Kress ranks 32nd among America’s wealthiest self-made women on Forbes’ 2026 list. Based on Wednesday’s closing price, her Nvidia holdings were worth around $750 million. That is a drop from the more than $1 billion they were worth when the share price hit its high last month.