Nvidia appoints Colette Kress as CFO

Nvidia has ended a two-year search for a new chief financial officer with the appointment of Colette Kress, a 24-year veteran of the tech industry.

Kress, 46, has been named executive vice president and chief financial officer of Nvidia.

Kress replaces the interim, CFO Karen Burns, who stepped up in after the chipmaker’s previous CFO David White left in May 2011 for personal reasons.

Kress, whose appointment takes effect later this month, will report to Nvidia president and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang.

“We have searched extensively for the right candidate and are thrilled to have Colette join us,” said Huang.

“She brings fantastic experience, excellent financial management skills and deep industry knowledge to Nvidia. Colette will be a great asset as we work to extend our global leadership in visual computing, mobile and the cloud. I want to thank Karen Burns for her truly outstanding work as interim CFO as we conducted our search.”

Kress previously served for three years as senior vice president and CFO at Cisco’s Business Technology and Operations Finance organisation. She was responsible for financial strategy, planning, reporting and business development for all business segments, engineering and operations.

Prior to that, she spent 13 years at Microsoft, including four years as CFO of the Server and Tools division, and held senior roles in corporate planning and finance. She also served at Texas Instruments in a variety of finance positions.

Kress holds a BSc in Finance from University of Arizona and an MBA from Southern Methodist University.

Kress’s appointment marks another step in the appointment of women to senior roles in the technology industry. Earlier this year, Microsoft appointed Amy Hood as its first female CFO.