Nvidia Hands Sales and Marketing to Outside Hires as Veterans Retire

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Nvidia's sales and marketing organizations are going through a changing of the guard as the AI boom changes what the company asks of its leaders. Veterans are retiring, which opens the door to longtime employees. CEO Jensen Huang is also bringing in people from outside the company and outside the chip industry.

The sales pitch itself has shifted. Nvidia has already persuaded companies to choose its chips. To keep growing, it has to convince more businesses to adopt AI, and those customers care less about hardware specifications than about how the technology can be put to work.

Greg Estes, a former vice president of corporate marketing, said the changes are most visible in sales and marketing. Finance, legal, operations and software and hardware engineering have stayed relatively stable.

Leaders from outside the chip world

Earlier this year Nvidia named Alison Wagonfeld, a Google Cloud executive, as its first chief marketing officer. In August, Microsoft veteran Nick Parker became the new sales chief, as executive vice president of worldwide field operations. Neither comes from the chip industry, though both have spent years helping businesses adopt software and cloud services.

Retirements and a "deep bench"

This year's retirees include former sales EVP Jay Puri, enterprise marketing VP Laura Fay, enterprise business SVP Shanker Trivedi and sales VP Kevin Connors. Scott Baker, a sales VP who retired in July after 26 years, said Huang regularly reshapes Nvidia as the business evolves. "It's truly a battleship spinning on a dime, and everyone gets aligned," he said.

Fay said Huang does not want to lose longtime executives, many of whom he recruited personally. As they move on, the next generation gets its chance.

Trivedi left in April after 17 years. He made mentorship part of his mission and was ready to pass the baton after years of grueling travel and seven-day workweeks. "Time stops for nobody," the 69-year-old said. He described a "deep bench" of younger sales and marketing talent who know the company's culture, market and partners, among them Raj Mirpuri in AI cloud infrastructure, Kimberly Powell in healthcare and Kari Briski in AI software.

After Trivedi retired, Nvidia divided his responsibilities among several leaders. As revenue soared during the AI boom, his job had become too big for one person. "Better to flatten the structure and gain velocity," he said.

Another Huang gains influence

Madison Huang, the CEO's daughter, worked in hospitality marketing at the French luxury group LVMH before joining Nvidia as an MBA intern in 2020. She has risen to senior director of product marketing for physical AI. One former employee said her experience with luxury brands brought a fresh perspective to a marketing team traditionally staffed by semiconductor veterans.

Two former employees said her influence reaches beyond her formal role. A second former employee said job titles can be fluid at Nvidia and that her remit extends past physical AI marketing: she directs teams at all levels on strategy and business decisions. She is also among a small circle of executives known to travel with her father, and their close relationship lets her anticipate his needs during high-level meetings and appearances, the first former employee said. "She 'speaks Jensen' very well," the first former employee said, "so he doesn't have to explain himself to her."

Nvidia did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

Source: Business Insider