Stephen C. Neal

Neal holds an AB from Harvard UniversityHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private research university in Massachusetts, established by the Massachusetts Bay Colony legislature in 1636 and named in 1639 for early benefactor John Harvard. Its principal campuses are in Cambridge and the Allston and Longwood neighborhoods of Boston. It includes Harvard College, graduate and professional schools, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Two governing boards share oversight. Alan M. Garber was president as of October 2026, and the endowment stood at $56.9 billion at the end of fiscal 2025.Open the full entry and a JD from Stanford Law SchoolStanford Law SchoolStanford Law School is Stanford University’s law school. Its law curriculum began in 1893, and it offers JD and advanced law degrees. Its alumni include technology-media entrepreneur Michael Arrington.Open the full entry. A former partner of Kirkland & Ellis, he joined Cooley in 1995.⁠[1][2]

He became chairman of Cooley in 2001, also serving as chief executive from 2001 to 2008, and is now its chairman emeritus and senior counsel, resident in the Palo Alto office.⁠[2][1][3]

He served on the board of Levi Strauss & Co. from 2007 to 2021 and as its chair from 2011 to 2021. He previously chaired the boards of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and is chairman of the Oversight Board Trust, a perpetual DelawareDelawareDelaware is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic region on the East Coast, with its capital at Dover and Wilmington as its largest city. On December 7, 1787, it became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, entering the Union as the 1st state, and it had a population of 989,948 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry special purpose trust.⁠[1]

On April 1, 2019, NVIDIA announced the appointment of Neal, then 70, to its board; 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 he brought deep knowledge and broad experience in corporate governance. He joined the board in March 2019.⁠[2][1]

NVIDIA’s May 2026 proxy statement gave his age as 77 and named him lead director and chair of the nominating and corporate governance committee, noting that he took part in the company’s annual stockholder outreach meetings and that NVIDIA had an independent lead director rather than a chairperson.⁠[4]

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.⁠[5][6]

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.⁠[7][8]

Cooley’s biography states that he has tried more than 30 cases to verdict as lead trial counsel and argued more than 20 appeals in federal and state courts, and that Law360 named him a “Trial Ace” in 2015.⁠[3]

His matters include successfully arguing before the Delaware Supreme Court in the case upholding General MotorsGeneral MotorsGeneral Motors Company is a Detroit-based American automaker selling Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC vehicles; the current company was incorporated in Delaware in 2009.Open the full entry’ buyout of Ross Perot, defending Santa Fe and USG against hostile takeovers, representing Walter Hewlett and the Hewlett Trust in the HP/Compaq situation, and representing NVIDIA and its board in patent cases and various governance matters.⁠[3]

NVIDIA: Official website: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/ (opens in a new window).⁠[9]

Cooley LLP: Official website: https://www.cooley.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[10]

Levi Strauss & Co.: Official website: https://www.levistrauss.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[11]