The Ledger ResearchPrivate

The Front Office

Scouting report · NVDA

Colette M. Kress

  • Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, NVDA since 2013-09src

NVIDIA's EVP and CFO since September 2013, previously at Cisco, Microsoft and TI

A−84 / 100

Ranked #4 of 23

Scouting sheet

as of 24 Sep 2026
Delivers guidance7710 beat · 7 met · 3 missed · 1 withdrawn
Answers the question751 dodge in 2 answers on 2 calls
Capital allocation100company five-year record: compounds
Pay design8048% performance-conditioned · revenue, operating income, relative tsr, time only · 93.6% for · 0.01% of net income
Skin in the game96stake worth $1.0bn, 71× last year's pay
Age
58src
In the role
13 yr
Promises scored
21
Hit rate
81%
Dodges / 100 answers
50.0
Airtime on calls
35%
Every promise, oldest firstBBBXBBBBBMMMMMMBMXWXB

What to weigh

Watch 5

  • Steady 10b5-1 seller: 338,628 shares sold for about $63.3m in the twelve months to 2026-09-24, in seven batches. None were boughtsrc
  • Adopted a 500,000-share 10b5-1 plan on 2025-12-18 and ended it on 2026-04-10 with nothing sold. Then adopted a new plan on 2026-06-16 covering up to 375,439 shares from future vests, running to 2027-12-14src
  • Stated the FY27 mid-70s gross-margin guide on the Q4 FY26 call and repeated it at Q1. At Q2 FY27 she withdrew it on memory cost, and she raised her FY27 opex-growth guide twice (dossier S8 rows 12-13)src
  • FY2027 variable cash target rose to $1.5m (150% of salary), five times the $300k FY2026 targetsrc
  • Less than half of her target pay depends on performance (48% for the non-CEO executives). RSUs with time vesting only were $7.4m of her $16.0m FY2026 targetsrc

In their favour 1

  • Holds 4.44m NVIDIA shares, above the 3x-salary ownership guideline. Hedging and pledging are prohibitedsrc

Career

  1. 2013 – now
    NVIDIA Corporationsrc
    Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
    Appointed 2013-09-11, replacing interim CFO Karen Burns (8K-2013-09-16)
  2. 2010 – 2013
    Cisco Systemssrc
    SVP & CFO, Business Technology and Operations Finance organization
    Responsible for financial strategy, planning, reporting and business development for all business segments, engineering and operations
  3. 1997 – 2010
    Microsoft Corporationsrc
    Various finance positions; from 2006 CFO of the Server and Tools division
  4. 1989 – 1997
    Texas Instrumentssrc
    Various finance positions
    Filings say eight years at TI before joining Microsoft in 1997; the 1989 start is inferred from that, not stated

Achievements

  • CFO of NVIDIA for thirteen years, from September 2013 through fiscal 2026 revenue of $215.9bn and non-GAAP operating income of $137.3bnsrc
  • Came from Cisco, where she was CFO of the Business Technology and Operations Finance organization from 2010src
  • Ran finance for Microsoft's Server and Tools division as its CFO from 2006, within thirteen years at Microsoftsrc
  • Named to Fortune's 2026 Most Powerful Women listsrc

Education

  • University of Arizona, BS Financesrc
  • Southern Methodist University, MBAsrc

Background

  • Family Her husband is trustee or co-trustee of family trusts (GRATs) that hold part of her NVIDIA stake. The proxy's related-person section names family employment only for Huang and director Shah, none for hersrc
  • Other Hired on an at-will offer letter: $500,000 salary, 110% target bonus, $1.5m sign-on and $1.0m first-anniversary bonuses (both repayable on early exit), and 220,000 RSUs over four yearssrc
  • Other No employment agreement, severance or change-in-control terms. NVIDIA gives its named executives nonesrc
  • Legal She was CFO throughout the 2017-18 period behind the pending securities class action and derivative suit over crypto-mining GPU demand. The 10-K names 'certain NVIDIA executives' as defendants without saying whichsrc

The promise ledger

21 scored · 0 open
ResultWhat was promisedWhere it is scoredHow
B BeatQ3 FY25 revenue $32.5bn ±2%NVDA row 1written outlook
B BeatQ4 FY25 revenue $37.5bn ±2%NVDA row 2written outlook
B BeatQ1 FY26 revenue $43.0bn ±2%; non-GAAP GM 71.0% ±50bp (revenue)NVDA row 3written outlook
X MissedQ1 FY26 revenue $43.0bn ±2%; non-GAAP GM 71.0% ±50bp (gross margin)NVDA row 3written outlook
B BeatQ2 FY26 revenue $45.0bn ±2% ("reflects a loss in H20 revenue of approximately $8.0 billion")NVDA row 4written outlook
B BeatQ3 FY26 revenue $54.0bn ±2%NVDA row 5written outlook
B BeatQ4 FY26 revenue $65.0bn ±2%NVDA row 6written outlook
B BeatQ1 FY27 revenue $78.0bn ±2%NVDA row 7written outlook
B BeatQ2 FY27 revenue $91.0bn ±2%NVDA row 8written outlook
M Met ×6Quarterly non-GAAP GM, the seven quarters other than row 3 (guides 75.0, 73.5, 72.0, 73.5, 75.0, 75.0, 75.0) (gross margin, six quarters)NVDA row 9written outlook
B BeatQuarterly non-GAAP GM, the seven quarters other than row 3 (guides 75.0, 73.5, 72.0, 73.5, 75.0, 75.0, 75.0) (gross margin, Q2 FY26)NVDA row 9written outlook
M MetFY25 gross margin "in the mid-70% range"NVDA row 10written outlook
X MissedFY26 non-GAAP opex growth "in the mid-30% range"NVDA row 11written outlook
W Withdrawn❗ FY27 gross margin in the mid-70s — "For the full year, we continue to see gross margins in the mid-70s."NVDA row 12said it
X MissedFY27 non-GAAP opex growth "in the low 40s"NVDA row 13said it
B BeatReturn "roughly 50% of free cash flow to shareholders this year"NVDA row 14said it

Questions dodged

50.0 per 100 answers

  1. Q2 FY27 · FY28 cash cost of the ecosystem commitments · Vivek Arya (BofA). Asked whether the ~$500bn he summed from the CFO commentary is the ballpark, and "if there is a specific cash part of that, that we should think about in fiscal '28". Huang answered the custom-chip competition part; Kress answered on supply commitments ("This is essential for the raising of Vera Rubin today as well as all next year.").…

    from NVDA · dossier-2026-09-24.md

Calls reviewed

  • FY2027-Q1.roic.json — 1 answers, 30% of the words
  • FY2027-Q2.roic.json — 1 answers, 40% of the words

Sources

19
  1. Filing NVIDIA Corporation DEF 14A (2026 annual meeting, accession 0001045810-26-000036) · 2026-05-12
  2. Filing NVIDIA Corporation 10-K for fiscal 2026 (Information About Our Executive Officers; Item 9B; Note on litigation) · 2026-02-25
  3. Filing NVIDIA Corporation 8-K Item 5.02, appointment of Colette Kress as EVP & CFO, with offer letter Ex. 10.1 (0001045810-13-000080) · 2013-09-16
  4. Filing NVIDIA Corporation 8-K Item 5.02, Fiscal Year 2027 Variable Compensation Plan targets (0001045810-26-000024) · 2026-03-06
  5. Filing NVIDIA Corporation 8-K Item 5.07, 2026 annual meeting results (0001045810-26-000056) · 2026-06-30
  6. Filing NVIDIA Corporation 10-Q for Q1 fiscal 2027, Part II Item 5 (Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangements) · 2026-05-20
  7. Filing NVIDIA Corporation 10-Q for Q2 fiscal 2027, Part II Item 5 (Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangements) · 2026-08-26
  8. Filing SEC XBRL companyconcept us-gaap/NetIncomeLoss, CIK 1045810 (FY2026 10-K, accn 0001045810-26-000021) · 2026-02-25
  9. Filing Form 4, Colette Kress (reporting CIK 1588670), 10b5-1 sales of 2025-10-21 (0001588670-25-000011) · 2025-10-23
  10. Filing Form 4, Colette Kress, 10b5-1 sales of 2025-11-03 (0001588670-25-000013) · 2025-11-05
  11. Filing Form 4, Colette Kress, tax withholding 2025-12-10 and 10b5-1 sales of 2025-12-12; GRAT transfers (0001588670-25-000015) · 2025-12-12
  12. Filing Form 4, Colette Kress, gift of 2025-12-17 (0001588670-25-000017) · 2025-12-19
  13. Filing Form 4, Colette Kress, 10b5-1 sales of 2026-01-13 (0001588670-26-000002) · 2026-01-15
  14. Filing Form 4, Colette Kress, 10b5-1 sales of 2026-02-04 (0001588670-26-000004) · 2026-02-06
  15. Filing Form 4, Colette Kress, tax withholding 2026-03-18 and 10b5-1 sales of 2026-03-20 (0001588670-26-000010) · 2026-03-20
  16. Filing Form 4, Colette Kress, tax withholding 2026-09-16 and 10b5-1 sales of 2026-09-17 (0001588670-26-000014) · 2026-09-18
  17. Call transcript NVDA Q4 FY2026 earnings call (2026-02-25), ROIC.ai
  18. Call transcript NVDA Q2 FY2027 earnings call (2026-08-26), ROIC.ai
  19. Web search result WebSearch: Colette Kress, 2026 Most Powerful Women (Fortune ranking page) · 2026-09-24