Is he? I thought he founded the company and made the first cards out of wood himself or some such?

I don't put billionaires or CEOs above workers. In fact, they have an uphill battle for me to respect what they do at all. But I'd assume anyone that started with Nvidia and worked their role for decades would have a lot of irreplaceable knowledge in that role. Whether they designed chips, worked fabs, or even just did scheduling.