Aarti Shah

Sandoz’s board profile gives Shah’s year of birth as 1964 and her nationality as U.S. She received BS and MS degrees in statistics and mathematics from Gujarat University in India before earning a PhD in applied statistics from the University of California, Riverside.⁠[1][2]

She joined Eli Lilly and Company out of graduate school, starting as a senior statistician and going on to serve as research scientist, vice president for biometrics and, from 2013 to 2016, global brand development leader in Lilly’s Bio-Medicines business unit.⁠[2][3][1]

From 2016 to 2021 she was Lilly’s senior vice president and chief information and digital officer, leading IT, digital health, cybersecurity, and advanced analytics and data sciences. She spent 27 years at Lilly in all, leaving in 2021.⁠[2][1][3]

Since 2020 she has been a trustee of the financial services organization Northwestern Mutual, serving on its audit committee and its distribution and technology committee.⁠[3]

On November 9, 2020, NVIDIA announced the appointment of Shah, then 56 and Lilly’s chief information and digital officer, to its board; it was the board’s second appointment that year after John O. DabiriJohn O. DabiriJohn O. Dabiri is an American fluid dynamicist and the Centennial Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology, researching fluid mechanics in biology, energy and the environment. A MacArthur Fellow and National Medal of Science recipient, he has served on the NVIDIA board since 2020.Open the full entry in July, expanding it to 13 members. Jensen HuangJensen HuangJensen Huang is a co-founder of NVIDIA who served as its president, chief executive officer, and a director from the company’s founding in 1993 until he resigned from those positions in November 2026. He has a background in electrical engineering education and the semiconductor industry, and under his leadership NVIDIA’s business expanded from graphics chips to GPU general-purpose computing, artificial intelligence, and data center computing platforms.Open the full entry said she had a deep passion for making an impact at the intersection of computer science and healthcare.⁠[2]

NVIDIA’s May 2026 proxy statement gave her age as 61 and listed her on the audit and compensation committees.⁠[4]

On May 15, 2023, the Novartis board approved the members of the future Sandoz board ahead of the spin-off, including Shah; she has been a non-executive, independent director of Sandoz Group since 2023, serving on its science, innovation and development committee and its human capital and ESG committee.⁠[5][1][3]

On November 8, 2026, the NVIDIA board began an independent investigation in light of reporting that founder and CEO Jensen Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort, overseen by a committee of independent directors assisted by outside independent counsel; the board said it had no reason to believe that national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised. On November 10, the independent directors announced that they had retained Joon H. Kim, former acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and his firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to conduct the investigation.⁠[6][7]

On November 11, the board accepted Jensen Huang’s resignation as president, chief executive officer and director, appointed Colette KressColette KressColette Kress is an American business executive who has been executive vice president and chief financial officer of NVIDIA since September 2013 and, since November 2026, also its interim chief executive officer following the resignation of Jensen Huang; she previously held finance positions at Texas Instruments, Microsoft and Cisco.Open the full entry interim chief executive officer and named Harvey C. JonesHarvey C. JonesHarvey C. Jones is an American entrepreneur and investor in electronic design automation who co-founded Daisy Systems in 1981, led Synopsys from 1987 to 1998 and co-founded Tensilica in 1997. An NVIDIA director since 1993, he became NVIDIA’s first-ever chair of the board on November 11, 2026.Open the full entry the company’s first-ever chair of the board; the company announced the changes on November 12.⁠[8][9]

She serves on the board of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and ALSAC and on its strategic planning committee and global and technology committee, and is secretary and a trustee of the nonprofit Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur USA. She served full terms on the Indianapolis Public Library Foundation board (nine years) and the Center for Interfaith Cooperation (four years).⁠[3]

NVIDIA: Official website: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/ (opens in a new window).⁠[10]

Eli Lilly and Company: Official website: https://www.lilly.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[11]

Sandoz: Official website: https://www.sandoz.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[12]

Northwestern Mutual: Official website: https://www.northwesternmutual.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[13]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aarti-shah-3a62186/ (opens in a new window).⁠[14]