NVIDIA (NVDA +0.10%) will soon have a new person heading its finance team. The company announced that it has appointed Colette Kress to be its CFO and executive vice president, effective later this month. She replaces interim CFO Karen Burns, who will continue to serve as the company's vice president, corporate controller and tax.
The 46-year-old Kress has worked for 24 years in the tech industry. Her most recent post was as CFO of Cisco Systems' business technology and operations finance unit. Before that, she worked for 13 years at Microsoft in several positions in corporate planning and finance, including CFO of the software giant's server and tools division. She joined Microsoft after working for eight years at Texas Instruments in a variety of finance jobs.
In an SEC filing, NVIDIA revealed that Kress will receive an annual base salary of $500,000 in her new position. On top of that, she will receive an initial sign-on bonus of $1.5 million, returnable to the company if she quits or is fired within a year of her start date. She is eligible for a first anniversary bonus of $1 million if she remains with the company, an amount that is also returnable under the same conditions as the sign-on bonus. Kress will also participate in at least one stock option program and could earn up to 110% of her base salary under NVIDIA's fiscal year 2014 variable compensation plan.
