Nvidia had no succession plan when Jensen Huang quit. Former Fortune 500 CEOs call it ‘preposterous’

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Jensen Huang had 60 direct reports and no clear heir. Ex-CEOs weigh in on how that could have been allowed to happen.

Nvidia’s total lack of the settled succession plan that’s a cornerstone of all well-run companies exposed a shocking weakness in its corporate governance. That’s the view of three former Fortune 500 CEOs, and a leading consultant, whom Fortune interviewed on arguably the most consequential leadership earthquake ever to rock the business world. Each of the former CEOs serves on prominent corporate boards.

On November 12, the Nvidia board issued a press release announcing Jensen Huang’s resignation shortly after reports of the CEO’s second affair emerged. Nvidia stated that longtime CFO Colette Kress will immediately start serving as “interim CEO” while the directors conduct a “search for a permanent Chief Executive Officer and will consider internal and external candidates.”

Kress has spent a quarter century in Big Tech financial roles, including thirteen years at Microsoft, before joining Nvidia in 2013. According to her resume posted on the Nvidia website, Kress’s past jobs don’t include any positions where she’s run a business or been responsible for a P&L. Hence, it’s highly probable that she’s a temporary pick, not a candidate to replace Huang.

It’s not clear if Nvidia had an emergency succession plan in place where Kress would temporarily take the top job in a crisis, or whether it had no plan at all and just improvised. In the opinion of one of the retired CEOs Fortune interviewed, it’s the latter. (They’re identified here as ex-CEOs 1, 2, and 3.) “It seems like a knee-jerk, panic reaction where the board’s saying, ‘We’ve got to name someone!'” says ex-CEO 3. “You’ve got to ask why a tech company would go with a financial person.”

It astounds these sources that the world’s second-most-valuable company, in business 33 years and public for 27, didn’t have a seasoned leader long groomed for the role ready to step in—especially given that Huang will turn 64 in February, and is already the oldest CEO by far in the Mag Seven.

The sources identified four red flags…

Huang’s…

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