Laura Fay, Nvidia’s longtime marketing executive who reported to CEO Jensen Huang, retired in July after about a decade at the AI chip giant.
Fay was formerly vice president of global enterprise marketing for Nvidia, overseeing campaigns, events, analyst relations, and partner marketing. He said his team grew from about 60 to 600 people while he was gone.
Fay was among 36 employees on an internal list obtained by Business Insider last year of company leaders who report directly to Huang. Before joining Nvidia, he spent 22 years at Cisco, finishing his tenure there as VP of global marketing.
Fay said Huang recruited him to build Nvidia’s corporate marketing organization as the company looked to expand beyond gaming.
“I want to change the world, and I want you to change with me,” he recalled telling her in their first phone call.
Fay said he began considering retirement on his 10th birthday in January, though a phone call from Huang congratulating him and expressing his hope that he would stick around for another decade persuaded him to stay longer.
Nvidia declined to comment.
Fay’s retirement comes as Nvidia also brings in new marketing leadership. In February, the company hired Google Cloud executive Alison Wagonfeld as its first chief marketing officer.
The Wall Street Journal reported at the time that Wagonfeld will oversee the entire marketing and communications team and responsibilities that were previously divided among several leaders.
The changes follow a long-standing marketing farewell. Greg Estes, Nvidia’s former corporate vice president of marketing and developer programs, is retiring in 2025 after about 15 years at the company.
Several longtime Nvidia people have retired this year, including head of sales Jay Puri, chief accountant Donald Robertson, and VP of hardware engineering Robert Huang. Several retirees told Business Insider that Nvidia’s exponential stock helped make their decision.
Nvidia’s communications organization is also undergoing a shake-up as scrutiny around the company increases, with about 15 employees leaving starting in 2025 amid a reorganization under new leadership.
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