Nigerian-American professor Oluseun Dabiri among NVIDIA board members behind Jensen Huang’s forced exit

Nigerian-American professor John Oluseun Dabiri is among the NVIDIA board members who met before the company’s co-founder, Jensen Huang, resigned as chief executive on Thursday amid a scandal over alleged extramarital affairs.

The chipmaker announced Huang, 63, was stepping down as CEO, president and board member effective immediately, following emergency board meetings late Wednesday, the New York Post reported.

According to Peoples Gazette, NVIDIA’s website lists Dabiri as a director since 2020. He is the Centennial Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

Dabiri taught at Stanford between 2015 and 2019 and has served as dean of students and chair of the faculty at Caltech. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and master’s and doctoral degrees from Caltech.

Huang’s position became precarious after an October 29 New York Times report linked him to Alice Huang, no relation, a suspected Chinese spy. The Times later reported a second affair with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care.

US President Donald Trump had defended Huang as “a very honorable man.”

Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO, while venture capitalist Harvey Jones becomes its first-ever board chairman.

Nvidia shares fell 7.1 per cent on Thursday, with the company shedding more than $450 billion in market value since the scandal broke.