NVIDIA's long-term financial director, Collette Kress ( Colette Kress ), has been appointed as the interim CEO as a growing scandal brings to an end Jensen Huang's 33-year tenure.

Cres's appointment was announced on Thursday, following Jensen Huang's resignation earlier in the day. The board of directors stated that Huang's resignation took effect immediately.

The board of directors stated that it is initiating the selection process for the permanent appointment of CEO and will 'consider both internal and external candidates'.

After NVIDIA's board of directors launched an investigation into whether Jensen Huang was a target of a "foreign intelligence operation," he resigned from his position. Jensen Huang also admitted to being unfaithful to his wife in a memorandum.

The New York Times reported that Jensen Huang has a romantic relationship with an executive from NVIDIA's client Megaspeed, identified as Alice Huang; American intelligence officials consider Alice Huang to be a person suspected of being a Chinese spy. In addition, Jensen Huang also had a romantic relationship with Kimberly Powell, who used to be the vice president of healthcare business at NVIDIA.

On Thursday, Cres said in a statement: "NVIDIA's strength always comes from our employees. I will work together with the leadership team to build upon the extraordinary foundation established by Jensen Huang over the past 33 years."

Jensen Huang has always maintained a flat management structure, with as many as 60 direct subordinates. He also expressed his desire to continue working for as long as possible, which complicates the succession planning.

Before joining NVIDIA, Kres held financial positions at Cisco and Microsoft. She also held several financial roles at Texas Instruments.

Business Insider Previous reports stated that Kres reported directly to Jensen Huang.