Colette Kress Bio: Age, Height, Husband David Kress, Career, Nvidia Interim CEO 2026, Net Worth & Facts

Colette Kress became the most powerful woman in the chip industry overnight. On November 12, 2026, Nvidia’s board named her interim chief executive officer after co-founder Jensen Huang resigned amid a widening scandal, making her only the second CEO in the company’s 33-year history. She kept her job as chief financial officer and executive vice president at the same time.

For more than a decade, Kress was the quiet numbers person behind Nvidia’s transformation from a graphics-card maker into the most valuable company on earth. She joined in 2013, helped push annual revenue from roughly $4 billion to more than $215 billion, and became a billionaire on paper through her stock. This biography covers her age, husband, education, career, net worth, and the unusual moment that put her in the top job.

Quick Facts

Searches for her name often appear next to Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, Curtis Priem, Lisa Su, Tim Cook, Satya Nadella, and Sundar Pichai. Nvidia board chair Harvey Jones also became a trending name after announcing her appointment.

Early Life & Education

Colette Marie Kress was born in the United States in 1967. Unlike many Silicon Valley executives, she did not grow up in the tech world and has kept the details of her childhood private. What is public is her path through finance: a steady climb through some of the biggest names in American business rather than a founder’s overnight success.

She earned a Bachelor of Science in finance from the University of Arizona, then added an MBA from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. That combination of public-university finance training and a Texas business school network gave her the foundation for nearly 25 years of corporate finance work before she ever touched a semiconductor.

Her early career began in the finance department at Texas Instruments, a company that builds the kind of chips Nvidia would later design around. Working inside a chipmaker taught her how capital-heavy businesses actually operate — long product cycles, expensive fabrication, and brutal demand swings — lessons that would matter enormously in the AI boom.

Career Journey

Microsoft and Cisco Years

Kress moved from Texas Instruments into senior finance roles at Microsoft, where she served as chief financial officer of the Server and Tools Division for about four years. She also held senior positions in corporate planning and finance. At the time, Microsoft was learning how to sell software to businesses at scale, and the server unit sat at the center of that shift.

She later became chief financial officer of Cisco’s Business Technology and Operations Finance section. By then her resume read like a tour of American enterprise computing: chips, software, and networking. She had seen how three different tech giants planned, spent, and reported — experience that made her an unusual candidate when a much smaller graphics company came calling.

Joining Nvidia in 2013

Nvidia hired Kress as chief financial officer in September 2013, after a two-year search. At the time, the company was still mostly known for graphics cards for gamers, and some observers thought she was unlikely to change its core business. Nvidia was also the smallest company she had ever worked for.

Her family played a part in the decision. In a 2023 interview with the Israeli business site Globes, she said her sons advised her to take the job because of Nvidia’s prominence in the video game community. It turned out to be one of the best career bets in modern corporate history.

Building the AI Balance Sheet

Kress became the financial architect of Nvidia’s AI era. She led the digitization of manual processes, managed the company’s relationship with Wall Street, and explained quarter after quarter why demand for graphics processors was not a temporary crypto fad. When cryptocurrency mining demand cooled in 2018, she argued publicly that gaming, autonomous vehicles, and data centers would pick up the slack.

She also worked on Nvidia’s “matchmaking” efforts, helping customers find data center space and other resources so they could actually deploy the chips they ordered. Under her watch, annual revenue climbed from about $4 billion to more than $215 billion, and Nvidia’s market value crossed into the trillions.

Interim CEO of Nvidia (2026)

On November 12, 2026, Nvidia announced that Jensen Huang had resigned as president, CEO, and board member, effective immediately. The departure followed reporting on his extramarital affairs and a separate controversy over alleged spying links. The board appointed Kress interim CEO while it searches for a permanent leader, and named Harvey Jones as the company’s first-ever board chair.

Her promotion did not calm the market at first. Nvidia shares fell about 14 percent the day of the announcement and were headed for a sixth straight weekly decline. Analysts, however, described her as the safest internal choice, pointing to her 13 years at the company and her deep knowledge of its finances and customers.

Career Stats

• Nvidia CFO since: September 2013
• Interim CEO since: November 12, 2026
• Annual revenue during her CFO tenure: roughly $4 billion to more than $215 billion
• Fortune Most Powerful Women 2026 ranking: No. 49
• First ranked as a billionaire: July 2025
• Reported Nvidia stock sales: more than $200 million

Personal Life

Kress is married to David Kress, a retired Microsoft business operations manager. The couple has two sons, and the family has stayed almost entirely out of the spotlight despite her rise. She rarely gives personal interviews and does not post about her home life on social media.

• Husband: David Kress, retired Microsoft business operations manager
• Children: Two sons
• Residence: Not publicly disclosed
• Public profile: Low-key; she prefers earnings calls to red carpets

Dating History and Affairs

There is no public dating history or relationship scandal attached to Colette Kress. She has been married to David Kress for decades, and the couple raised two sons together. Her husband’s background in Microsoft operations mirrors her own enterprise-tech career, though the two have never spoken publicly about how they met.

When Nvidia’s 2026 scandal broke, the attention focused on Jensen Huang’s personal life, not hers. Kress has not been accused of any wrongdoing, and no credible report has linked her to the controversy beyond her role in steadying the company.

Controversies

She inherited a crisis, not a clean handoff. Kress took over hours after her predecessor resigned amid reporting on extramarital affairs and alleged spying links. Investors dumped the stock, and she now has to reassure customers, employees, and shareholders while the board hunts for a permanent CEO.

The dual-role question. Some governance experts questioned whether one person should serve as both interim CEO and CFO, since the roles are supposed to check each other. Nvidia said she would hold executive and financial authority during the transition, and the board has not announced a timeline for naming a permanent leader.

Earnings pressure. Her first weeks on the job coincide with a quarterly report and a planned multibillion-dollar infrastructure buildout. A $96.2 billion quarterly business is a lot to defend in an interim role, and any stumble will be blamed on the transition.

Beyond the Nvidia situation, Kress has no personal scandals, lawsuits, or ethics investigations on the public record through November 2026.

Awards & Achievements

• Named interim CEO of Nvidia in November 2026, becoming only the second CEO in the company’s history and the first woman to lead it
• Ranked No. 49 on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women list in 2026
• Received The New Era in Business award from Chief, a women’s networking organization, in 2024
• Named to the MarketWatch 50 list as an AI player in 2023
• Became one of the few CFOs in America to reach billionaire status through company equity, in July 2025
• Helped guide Nvidia’s revenue from about $4 billion to more than $215 billion a year

Physical Statistics

• Height: Not publicly disclosed
• Weight: Not publicly disclosed
• Hair Color: Blonde
• Eye Color: Blue
• Style: Professional and understated — dark blazers and simple necklaces are her usual look

Quotes

“NVIDIA’s strength has always come from its people, and together with our leadership team, I am committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years.”

Colette Kress, statement on being named interim CEO, November 12, 2026, as reported by CNBC

“I think more investors really now understand who we are — because 10 years ago, probably few could articulate our long-term vision.”

Colette Kress, interview with Globes in 2023, as reported by ABC News

Favorites

• Favorite part of the job: Financial modeling and long-term planning, according to her public remarks over the years
• Favorite kind of meeting: Detailed budget reviews rather than big public appearances
• Favorite industry topic: AI infrastructure and data center capacity
• Favorite leadership style: Quiet, prepared, and numbers-first
• Favorite way to spend downtime: With her husband and two sons, away from cameras

Earnings

Colette Kress’s net worth is estimated at about $1 billion as of November 2026, according to Celebrity Net Worth. She became a billionaire in July 2025 thanks to her Nvidia equity, a rare milestone for a chief financial officer who did not found the company.

Her income comes from three main places: her executive salary as CFO and now interim CEO, her Nvidia stock awards, and dividends. Reports say she has sold more than $200 million worth of Nvidia shares over the years. She also holds unvested equity that rises and falls with the share price, which is why her net worth can swing by hundreds of millions in a single week.

Interesting Facts

• She joined Nvidia partly because her sons told her the company was a big deal in gaming.
• She has been Nvidia’s CFO since September 2013 — more than a decade of the company’s wildest growth.
• She is only the second CEO in Nvidia’s history, after Jensen Huang.
• She kept the CFO title while serving as interim CEO, an unusual dual role at a company this size.
• Her first finance job was at Texas Instruments, another chip company.
• She has worked at Microsoft and Cisco as well as Nvidia, giving her a rare three-company view of enterprise tech.

Did You Know Already?

• She was born in 1967, which makes her 58 or 59 in 2026; her exact birthday has never been published.
• Nvidia was founded in 1993 at a Denny’s restaurant in Silicon Valley.
• She became a billionaire before she became CEO.
• Her appointment came just days before Nvidia’s quarterly earnings report.
• She is the first woman to run Nvidia.

Social Media Links

• Nvidia newsroom: nvidianews.nvidia.com
• Nvidia investor relations: investor.nvidia.com
• Nvidia official site: nvidia.com

Note: Kress does not maintain a verified personal social media account. We list official company pages only.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Colette Kress spent 13 years as the steady hand on Nvidia’s numbers, and in November 2026 she became the steady hand on the whole company. Her story is a reminder that the people who understand how a business actually works often end up running it when a crisis hits. Whether she keeps the job or hands it to someone else, she has already made history at Nvidia.

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