RODNEY HIDE: He stood down

Jensen Huang has stood down as chief executive of Nvidia. He co-founded the company in 1993 at a Denny's in San Jose, with about US$40,000 between the founders. It was worth next to nothing. Its chips first powered 3D games, then the computers that train and run much of the world's artificial intelligence. By early October the company was valued at nearly US$6 trillion. On the day he resigned, it was still worth about US$4 trillion.

He built a company 58 times the value of our government debt

The company thanked him for his "immeasurable contributions" and gave no reason.

A few days earlier, Huang had written to his staff: "I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did." Newspapers had reported a relationship with a businesswoman whom US intelligence officials described as a suspected Chinese spy. Beijing called that groundless. The New York Times then reported a second relationship, with an executive who reported to him. Nvidia's own statement confirmed none of that. Then the founder was gone.

The man who built that company did not stay on to fix the mess. He stood down.

Now look at Wellington.

In 2021, five-year-old Malachi Subecz was murdered by his carer. The Chief Ombudsman found that the Ministry for Children had failed to do the "bare minimum." He called the ministry's response "a litany of failures." The ministry apologised. The chief executive stayed, leaving years later for his health.

In February the Independent Children's Monitor reported that, between December 2021 and June 2025, another 24 children had been killed by their carers. Half were already known to the ministry. Of the 14 recommendations made after Malachi's death, only two were complete. The Monitor said the work was "just beginning."

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment ran an immigration computer upgrade for seven years that, a review found, delivered "no measurable benefits" and cost tens of millions of dollars. This year's Budget wrote off $31.2 million. Minister Erica Stanford said officials had withheld information from ministers and used "creative accounting" to stay under the Cabinet limit.

In March, MPs asked about progress and were not told the project had already been cancelled. The Privileges Committee found that the ministry "deliberately misled" the select committee, a contempt of Parliament.

The chief executive, Nic Blakeley, offered to resign. Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche declined. It would not be "fair or proportionate," he said. Blakeley had been in the job only six weeks when they appeared before the committee. He is still in it. "My focus now," he said, "is making sure a failure of this nature does not happen again."

This week it was the Ministry of Justice. A review, ordered after a staff member was kept on full pay for five years, more than $500,000, while facing serious criminal charges, found weak leadership and risk avoidance. The minister's confidence was "seriously shaken."

The chief executive, Andrew Kibblewhite, said he would not step down. "As chief executive I accept the findings and I will ensure the recommendations are implemented." He told Checkpoint he was "grabbing that with both hands."

This week Radio New Zealand reported an $11.8 million deficit for the year to June, against a forecast loss of $470,000. Auditors found that in June the board approved a $5 million overdraft with Westpac without the ministerial approval the Crown Entities Act requires. As much as $2.3 million was drawn during the year. Chief executive Paul Thompson took responsibility. He had already said he would leave at year's end. Asked whether he would go early, he said no. He will be paid until his contract ends in December, and his pay includes a possible bonus, conditional on performance. "I've got a job to do to move the organisation forward." Brent Impey, who signed the facility off as a director and is now the chair, accepted the law had been broken. "How did that happen? That's very difficult to explain."

In 2023 the Qualifications Authority's online exam platform failed in the middle of the exam period. A review found defects, inadequate testing, and a weak grip on the vendor. The chief executive, Grant Klinkum, stayed on. He stepped down in August this year, for ill health.

On Thursday, under his successor Christian Hawkesby, the Level 2 English platform crashed again. Hawkesby said as many as 37,500 students may have been affected. He would not say with certainty it would not happen again. He has not stood down. The students will get a derived grade, or the better of that and whatever they managed to save before the screen went dark.

That is the difference. In the market, even the founder of a company worth trillions can lose the job when staying would damage the firm. In the public service, a bad report is not a reason to go. It is a reason to stay: someone has to implement the recommendations.

And government CEOs are easy to replace. Jensen is not.

Rodney Hide is a former Minister and ACT Party leader