Melissa B. Lora

Lora holds a BS in finance from California State University, Long Beach and an MBA in corporate finance from the University of Southern CaliforniaUniversity of Southern CaliforniaThe University of Southern California (USC) is a private research university in Los Angeles, California, planned by a group led by Judge Robert Maclay Widney and opened to students in 1880.Open the full entry. She spent 31 years in senior roles at Taco Bell, a subsidiary of Yum! BrandsYum! BrandsYum! Brands is a restaurant franchising group headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker YUM). Its brands are KFC, Taco Bell, and Habit Burger & Grill, and as of September 2026 it operated or franchised more than 44,000 restaurants in 151 countries and territories; it and Yum China Holdings, which runs these brands in mainland China, are two separate publicly traded companies.Open the full entry, including more than a dozen years as global chief financial and development officer.⁠[1][2]

From 2014 she was president of Taco Bell’s international business, retiring in 2018 as president of Taco Bell International.⁠[2][1]

She joined the board of homebuilder KB Home in 2004, chaired its audit committee from 2008 to 2018 and served as lead independent director from 2016 until leaving the board in April 2024. Her 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 profile lists the tenure as April 2004 to April 2024.⁠[1][3]

From 2018 to 2022 she also served on the board of MGIC Investment Corporation.⁠[1]

On December 6, 2018, Conagra Brands announced the appointment of Lora, then 56, to its board effective January 4, 2019, expanding it to 10 members. In a statement she said she admired the transformation led by CEO Sean Connolly and the board over the previous several years.⁠[2]

She chairs Conagra Brands’ nominating and corporate governance committee and serves on its human resources and executive committees; her LinkedIn profile states that she chaired the audit and finance committee from 2020 to 2025.⁠[1][3]

On July 24, 2023, NVIDIA announced the appointment of Lora, then 61, to its board and audit committee, expanding the board to 14 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 brought senior management and operating experience as well as extensive finance expertise gained in a large corporate setting.⁠[4]

NVIDIA’s May 2026 proxy statement gave her age as 63, listed her on the audit committee and the nominating and corporate governance committee, and identified her as an audit committee financial expert.⁠[5]

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]

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

Taco Bell: Official website: https://www.tacobell.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[11]

Conagra Brands: Official website: https://www.conagrabrands.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[12]

LinkedIn: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissalora/ (opens in a new window).⁠[3]