Who Is Kimberly Powell? 10 Things to Know About the Nvidia Healthcare Chief Named in New Jensen Huang Report

Kimberly Powell, a longtime Nvidia Corp. executive who built the chipmaker's health care business, has been drawn into the scandal surrounding Chief Executive Jensen Huang.

On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that Huang had an extramarital relationship with Powell, citing five people who previously worked at Nvidia. Nvidia, Huang and Powell have not confirmed the report.

Within hours, The Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia's board was preparing to oust Huang. Reuters later reported that the board was meeting late Wednesday to decide his future.

Here are 10 things to know about Powell.

1. She runs Nvidia's global health care business

Powell is Nvidia's vice president of health care. She is responsible for the company's worldwide health care business, including hardware and software platforms for accelerated computing, AI and visualization.

Those platforms support medical imaging, life sciences, drug discovery and health care analytics. Some recent event listings describe her title as vice president of health care and life sciences.

2. She is one of Nvidia's longest-serving executives

Powell joined Nvidia in 2008 and has worked at the company for more than 18 years. That makes her one of Nvidia's longest-tenured senior leaders.

In an episode of the "Lifers" podcast published in August, she described the job as a "dream come true." She said she first contacted Nvidia to discuss its computing chips.

3. She is an engineer by training

Powell started her career on the engineering side of health technology, not in medicine. She worked in engineering and product management of diagnostic display systems at Planar Systems, a display maker.

She holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering with a concentration in computer engineering from Northeastern University in Massachusetts, according to her official conference biography. Her LinkedIn profile also lists a graduate certificate in project management from Boston University and executive education at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

4. She built Nvidia's health care business from medical imaging

Powell joined Nvidia to establish its graphics processors as the accelerator platform for medical imaging instruments. Her early job focused on promoting Nvidia's visual computing platforms in higher education and health care and on building partnerships with universities and large health care companies.

The business has since grown into one of Nvidia's best-known industry markets, spanning medical devices, genomics and pharmaceutical research. Nvidia's Clara platform for health care AI is part of the business she oversees.

5. She ran Nvidia's startup program and AI labs

Before her current role, Powell led Nvidia's higher education and research business. She also oversaw strategic evangelism programs, NVIDIA AI Labs and the NVIDIA Inception program, which supports AI startups.

According to her biography, the Inception program grew to more than 7,000 AI startup members.

6. She rose quickly as AI took off

As Nvidia's chips became central to artificial intelligence, Powell's career advanced. She was promoted to senior director of AI business development in 2016. In that role, she led an international team that expanded into new markets in deep learning, data analytics and AI.

She became vice president of health care in October 2017.

7. She reports directly to Huang

Powell is one of roughly 60 executives who report directly to Huang. Nvidia's CEO is known for his unusually flat management structure.

That reporting line has drawn scrutiny. Nvidia's code of conduct directs employees to avoid situations that could create conflicts of interest, including personal relationships. Many U.S. companies strictly limit romantic relationships between executives and the employees who report to them.

8. She is a prominent voice on AI in medicine

Powell is a regular speaker at Nvidia's annual GTC developer conference, where she has talked about using AI to speed up drug discovery.

In June, she shared the main stage at the BIO International Convention with Genentech CEO Ashley Magargee. At the HLTH health care conference in Las Vegas, she discussed AI-powered digital twins of hospitals, which are virtual replicas that use real-time data.

In a podcast interview published this week, Powell discussed why AI adoption in health care is moving faster than expected. She also described her vision of a future in which hospitals operate like robots. She has called AI the biggest technological breakthrough of our lifetime for health care.

9. She is named in a New York Times report about Huang

The Times reported Wednesday that Huang had an extramarital relationship with Powell. Both are married, but not to each other. Huang is 63, and Powell has been reported to be 48.

According to the report, the two were seen being affectionate at a hotel near Nvidia's GTC conference in San Jose, California, in March. Someone reportedly recorded the encounter on a mobile phone, and members of Huang's security team allegedly took the person aside and asked them to sign a nondisclosure agreement. The Times said it had not seen the video.

When a Times reporter asked Huang about Powell by phone, he said, "I don't think you should be talking to me directly," before hanging up. Nvidia declined to comment, and Powell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The report followed earlier revelations about Huang's relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Nvidia customer Megaspeed. U.S. officials suspect her of being a Chinese spy. China has denied the allegations. The two Huangs are not related.

10. She withdrew from a major health conference

Powell had been scheduled to speak Thursday morning at the opening of the Milken Institute Health Summit in Washington. The moderator, CNN reporter Meg Tirrell, announced that Powell had canceled her appearance and did not give a reason, according to reports citing the Times.

It is unclear how the controversy will affect Powell's role at Nvidia. The company has not commented on her status.

What happens next

Nvidia's board met late Wednesday to decide whether to remove Huang, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. No decision had been announced as of late Wednesday.

Nvidia shares fell as much as 9% in after-hours trading after the reports. Including that drop, the company has lost about $600 billion in market value this week, according to Reuters.

Nvidia is scheduled to report fiscal third-quarter earnings on Nov. 17. Huang also faces a request from House Republicans to attend a closed-door briefing on Nov. 18 about his contacts with Alice Huang.