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Cress, who is 58 years old this year, has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at NVIDIA since September 2013. She joined the company long before artificial intelligence helped this graphics chip company leap to become one of the technology companies with the highest market value in the world.

Before joining NVIDIA, she worked at Cisco for three years, where she was responsible for financial strategy, planning, financial reporting, and business expansion. Even earlier, she spent 13 years at Microsoft, serving as the financial head of the Server and Tools division for four of those years; she also worked at Texas Instruments for eight years.

She holds a Bachelor of Finance degree from the University of Arizona and a Master of Business Administration ( MBA ) degree from Southern Methodist University.

Her work is not limited to just bookkeeping. Kres is responsible for disclosing NVIDIA's financial reports to the market and communicating with Wall Street analysts regarding requirements, profit margins, and investment plans. In the event of sudden changes in the leadership, this level of external exposure becomes very crucial.

Jay Aldbert, a senior executive at an international services company, said in an interview with Newsweek on Tuesday that NVIDIA does not need to look for another leader with a style similar to that of its founder. He believes that the company should distribute responsibilities among a stronger management team to reduce its dependence on a single executive.