Jensen Huang Said to Have Had Relationship With Nvidia Executive Who Reports to Him (nytimes.com) 51
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is facing scrutiny over an affair with an alleged Chinese spy. Now, The New York Times reports that Mr. Huang also had an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell, the company's vice president of health care and a direct report, raising questions about conflicts of interest and compliance with the company's policies governing personal relationships. From the report: The relationship, which has not been previously reported, was with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of health care, said the people, who spoke under the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive information. Under Nvidia's code of conduct, employees are told to "avoid situations where our actions create conflict" including "personal relationships," and the company states that it "promptly investigates reports of misconduct." Many corporations have policies against managers having relationships with subordinates.
Mr. Huang, 63, and Ms. Powell, 48, were captured on video being affectionate at a San Jose, Calif., hotel during a Nvidia conference in March, according to two of the people who worked at the company. The New York Times has not seen the video. Both Mr. Huang and Ms. Powell are married to other people. [...] One bystander captured the interaction on their phone, three people briefed on the incident said. Mr. Huang's security witnessed the bystander with their phone and sequestered them, the people said. They made the person an offer to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Further reading: Nvidia and Jensen Huang Face Shareholder Lawsuit Alleging Investors Were Misled About Spy Affair
Mr. Huang, 63, and Ms. Powell, 48, were captured on video being affectionate at a San Jose, Calif., hotel during a Nvidia conference in March, according to two of the people who worked at the company. The New York Times has not seen the video. Both Mr. Huang and Ms. Powell are married to other people. [...] One bystander captured the interaction on their phone, three people briefed on the incident said. Mr. Huang's security witnessed the bystander with their phone and sequestered them, the people said. They made the person an offer to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Further reading: Nvidia and Jensen Huang Face Shareholder Lawsuit Alleging Investors Were Misled About Spy Affair
If true.... (Score:3)
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... and he'll be doing it without the golden parachute. This would be a "for cause" firing, meaning no severance and no vesting of outstanding shares / options. We'll mail you your shit.
Will be interesting to see if Nvidia actually upholds their stated policies or makes exceptions for the asshole at the top.
Re:If true.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Huang's not a peon who can be fired by HR; he can only be fired by the board, and only in accordance with his contract, which is no doubt quite favorable to him.
Executives sleeping with Chinese spies is news. Them sleeping with the help is pretty much Tuesday.
Re:If true.... (Score:4, Insightful)
This is the most damning part:
Mr. Huang's security witnessed the bystander with their phone and sequestered them, the people said. They made the person an offer to sign a nondisclosure agreement.
It proves the company knew about it and tried to cover it up. This isn't just a story about two people having an affair. A publicly traded company tried to deceive the public (meaning investors) about something that was clearly material to their stock price. Expect the lawsuits to start within days.
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Expect the lawsuits to start within days.
Some lawsuits have already been filed. They will likely be amended (and new ones filed) as new allegations drip, drip, drip, out.
I would not be surprised if Huang's lawyers, and the boards lawyers, are talking about the way to have Huang exit sooner rather than later.
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It proves the company knew about it and tried to cover it up.
Nope. It proves that a specific security detail was given some private instructions. The company may or may not have known anything about this. For that there is typically an internal conflict of interest register, which at their level would be visible only to the members of the board. If a lawsuit is filed, that will be the relevant document.
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Who, exactly, authorized the security detail assigned to Huang to make such an offer? That's not the sort of thing one delegates to the muscle, it's the sort of thing handled by high-level corporate attorneys. And no corporate attorney will unilaterally order such an offer to be extended unless they're absolutely certain it's going to blessed by the board, because it's career suicide o
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And the Wall Street Journal says the board is having an emergency meeting as soon as today.
Gee, what do you think they have to talk about?
Needs a new plan for smuggling chips into China? (Score:3)
And the Wall Street Journal says the board is having an emergency meeting as soon as today. Gee, what do you think they have to talk about?
A new plan for smuggling chips into China? ;-)
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Wednesday, Thursday and Friday ... (Score:2)
It's Wednesday.
Tuesday is for the first woman to go public, the one who's name is remembered.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are for all the other women who will corroborate with their similar stories and be forgotten.
Re:If true.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Executives sleeping with Chinese spies is news. Them sleeping with the help is pretty much Tuesday.
Yes and on Wednesday most Executives sleeping with the help get fired by the board. Intel, bp, Nestle, McDonalds, and NBC just to name the first few to show up in a google search have all lost CEOs this past decade alone due to relationships with subordinates. Most CEO contracts offer precisely zero defence against conflict of interest violations.
Most companies have insanely strict rules about this and hold top management to them far more critically than lower level employees as the impact of a potential conflict of interest and the legal ramifications get worse the higher up the chain you get. The Chinese spy on the other hand is unfortunate but defensible given that it wasn't an internal undisclosed company relationship and very much a case of being professionally played by an external nation state actor.
Re: If true.... (Score:2)
The difference here is he is chairman. And yes, sometimes a chairman is held to account. But in this case, he *is* the company. He is the brand. Similar to Gates and Jobs. Iâ(TM)m not saying he wonâ(TM)t get fired. But I think the odds are he doesnâ(TM)t.
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So you think that they should just put up with this shit because other shitty companies also put up with shitty behavior from shitty people?
Is that where we're really at?
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Men have never cared about this stuff unless their wife or daughter was involved because they know high-status men have harems.
It's only in the last few decades we're supposed to tut and twirl our bow-ties when men do what men do.
It's a consequence of the weakness of 20th century men. The only women who care are the ones who know they're not pretty enough to get banged by billionaires.
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People with status and wealth, using their status and wealth to get ahead at the mating game. It used to outrage me. Maybe I'm old and jaded enough that I just accept that this is human behavior.
This isn't just a men-being-bad thing either. Historically, when women obtained positions of leadershi
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External and internal affairs are two different things. The question of disclosure also changes things. It's not against the rules to have affairs. It's against the rules to create conflicts of interest. In whom you stick your willy is irrelevant providing it's not someone working at the same company, a competitor, or someone else having business relations. Neither Gates nor Musk have been caught having an affair with employees.
Whether it will be punished will depend on the severity.
You named gates as someo
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If the board is happy with the CEO, they'll conveniently not-look-too-hard, or settle privately with any spurned lovers.
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I suspect, that in most of those cases, the boards had already decided that their CEOs needed to go, for one reason or another. The boards we simply waiting for a "gotcha" moment.
At least in Intel's case, the board fired Brian Krzanich for a consensual relationship with a subordinate, regardless of the fact that the stock was up 120% in his tenure.
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The policy is there so that a board of directors can selectively enforce it when they feel like canning an executive that's gotten troublesome for any reason.
Yep. Never call out misbehaviour when you see it. Document the misbehaviour and use it as a lever when it will provide the greatest advantage.
On a related topic, why did nobody call out the outrageous things that were happening on Epstein's island? Because the whole point was to build up a war chest of blackmail material for future leverage.
Raises questions for sure (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: Raises questions for sure (Score:2)
Re: Raises questions for sure (Score:1)
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An alternative to your conspiracy theory rabbit hole that still addresses "why now?" - it could be as simple as the Chinese told him "we need you to do X or we'll expose your affair with our spy" and he basically said "publish and be damned". [wikiquote.org]
More likely, he probably just got caught one too many times and the board said "we can't ignore it any more".
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The simpler explanation along the same lines: there was an active investigation going on at the United States Department of Commerce into this, and that investigation was yanked over to DoJ where nothing happened.
Who's to say that someone at Commerce had enough of that shit, and after the election results saw who is going to be holding committee gavels in January and got a big case of the fuck-its and leaked investigation details, including memos from Marco Rubio about it, to the New York Times?
That's "why
Public relations (Score:1)
how can we possibly be back to this? (Score:1)
This is between Huang and his wife. If she wants to divorce his sorry ass, she's got good cause to take an extra-sized bite out of his money. I'm fine with this.
This is also between Huang and the
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Whatabout Trump? Really?
Guess what - we're stuck with that guy. Nvidia's board is not stuck with this guy. Why is everyone ok with rich assholes breaking rules? Why are you making such apologistic twaddle comments?
The board is meeting [wsj.com], and they will fire this guy, because he can't keep it in his pants while also keeping that problem from being a public problem. And it became a very public problem.
I'm honestly surprised that more "key man" contracts don't have protective clauses about this kind of thing
Company consequences increases blackmail (Score:2)
I'm honestly surprised that more "key man" contracts don't have protective clauses about this kind of thing, specifically to deter extortion / blackmail.
Any attempt to enforce 'morality' will introduce the potential for extortion. The broader the definition of 'morality' the more opportunity for extortion. To reduce extortion you have to reduce 'morality', hypothetically to what is legal. Maybe you could add code of conduct things like prohibiting sexual activity on company premises. But adding anything legal and private, even with the best of intentions, increases the opportunity for extortion.
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everyone getting the vapors over an extramarital affair. Who. Cares.
There's a big difference between having an affair, and having an undisclosed internal affair with a subordinate while you are at a C-level company boss. Who cares? The board, the share market, and potentially regulators. You play dismissive as if major companies like Intel, McDonalds, Nestle, and bp haven't had their boards fire their CEOs in the past decade for precisely this
Who cares? Huang cares. Unlike the Chinese spy thing which was an external affair, this one could actually cost him his job.
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I'm thinking the chinese spy thing might also do so - that's a massive legal risk due to violation of export controls. Nvidia is on the hook for third party exports or "reexports", same as any other business who ships things that fall under export controls.
They got paid, and they were paid to not look too carefully. And the US Government takes a dim look on that and doesn't brook any bullshit excuses. Or, at least, they used to less than a year ago - Applied Materials got rung up for about a quarter bill
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The executive branch will try pretty hard to bury this. They’ll probably succeed through distraction, same as always. Huang’s goose might be cooked, but he also might know enough about Trump’s under-the-table dealings that the admin might protect him. I dunno.
Maybe he never took (Score:2)
his companies sexual harassment training, because most people and most companies don't allow relationships with direct reports. If you have money, maybe that makes you 'above the law'.
At least Tesla and SpaceX are safe (Score:4, Funny)
... because even spies have their standards.
Penetration testing (Score:2)
If pussy is Jensen's kryptonite, maybe the board should stop treating him like Superman. The part of the Times report [nytimes.com] that makes this Nvidia's business is the reporting line. If the relationship is confirmed, was it disclosed? Who signed off on his direct report's pay and promotions? A hotel video won't answer either question.
Nvidia's board announced an independent inquiry [nvidia.com] into the separate intelligence allegations. I'd like to know who's looking into this one and whether employees can talk to them without
I wonder what the board will do... (Score:2)
Virtually all companies have conflict of interest rules against this. And even large company's CEOs aren't safe from it:
Intel https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/2... [cnbc.com]
Bp https://www.theguardian.com/bu... [theguardian.com]
Nestle https://www.reuters.com/busine... [reuters.com]
McDonalds https://www.bbc.com/news/busin... [bbc.com]
NBC https://www.ndtv.com/feature/n... [ndtv.com]
Shock, shock horror, horror, shock, shock horror (Score:2)
Gates, Musk, Huang, etc, etc (Score:1)
"I must not fuck the staff"
"I must not
Really, how difficult is it, FFS ?