Harvey Jones: The New Chair Leading Nvidia

Nvidia’s leadership underwent significant changes as CEO Jensen Huang stepped down. Colette Kress, the CFO, stepped in as interim CEO. Concurrently, the company appointed Harvey Jones as its first-ever chair of the board.

Jones, aged 73, is familiar within Nvidia’s circles but not widely known to the public. Information on him is scarce, primarily found in Nvidia’s annual reports and website biographies. He rarely engages in interviews.

In a 2009 interview with the Computer History Museum, Jones revealed connections with Nvidia’s founders during his tenure as CEO of Synopsys, a chip-design software company. Nvidia’s founders had been key engineers for Synopsys. Jones joined Nvidia’s board in 1993, the year the company launched.

The founding team of Nvidia were, in fact, the core engineers that were our first customer at Synopsys. So we had a very, very close relationship with the team that founded Nvidia, Jones noted in his interview.

Besides Synopsys, Jones co-founded Daisy Systems in 1981, a company focused on computer-aided engineering. He served as Synopsys’s executive chairman after his CEO tenure. Jones later co-founded Tensilica, acquired by Cadence Design Systems in 2013. Since 2004, he has been managing the investment firm Square Wave Ventures.

Jones serves on Nvidia’s audit, nominating, and corporate governance committees. The company’s 2026 proxy statement describes him as an independent director and financial expert with insights into semiconductor technologies and complex system design.

Mr. Jones brings to the board an executive management background, an understanding of semiconductor technologies and complex system design, noted his proxy statement biography. His significant financial community experience gives the Board an understanding of the methods by which companies can increase value for their stockholders.

As of March 23, Jones owned approximately 7 million Nvidia shares, valued at over $1.1 billion. His appointment follows Huang’s departure as the board seeks a new CEO. Jones expressed confidence in Kress and the leadership team, anticipating ongoing operations and product development without disruption.

Jones studied math and computer science at Georgetown University.