The intertwined fates of the world’s most valuable company, Nvidia, and its embattled CEO and co-founder, Jensen Huang, now lie in the hands of a group of Nvidia directors that includes early investors in the company, a one-time Goldman Sachs executive and a professor who’s an expert on how sea creatures swim.

There may be no more consequential voice in the decision about Huang’s fate than that of Stephen Neal, a storied attorney who joined the board in 2019 and serves as its lead independent director. As chair of the Nvidia board’s corporate governance committee, he’s likely to take a leading role in the investigation. Neal is a longtime fixture at Cooley LLP, one of the nation’s most prominent corporate law firms. Among his prior clients is Elizabeth Holmes, the former Theranos founder and CEO, who is now in prison.