Jensen Huang Joins a Growing Club: C.E.O.s Brought Down by Affairs

The “close personal relationship” has been the downfall of a number of chief executives over the years.Now it has felled Jensen Huang, the founder and chief executive of Nvidia.Mr.

Huang resigned on Thursday following revelations that he had an affair with an executive at the company as well as with a woman whom U.S.intelligence agencies concluded was an intelligence asset for China.Posing a risk to national security is not the usual reason for ousting a chief executive.

More often, it is that a relationship was in violation of company policy.Large companies generally have had policies that prohibit managers and direct reports from having romantic relationships.Nvidia’s code of conduct tells employees to “avoid situations where our actions create conflict” including “personal relationships.”“When it comes to direct reports, companies have had hard policies and have had for ages,” said Charles G.

Tharp, executive vice president of the CHRO Association, a group for human resources officers.Mr.Tharp added that companies likely tightened enforcement on these policies in the wake of the Me Too era.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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