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Apple appoints new CFO as seasoned pro retires...
Wed, 12th Mar 2014
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s senior vice president and CFO, will retire at the end of September, with Luca Maestri, the company's vice president of Finance and corporate controller, set to takeover the role.

Reporting to Apple CEO, Tim Cook, Oppenheimer will transition the CFO role to Luca in June and the balance of his responsibilities over the remaining time allowing for a professional and seamless transition.

“Peter has served as our CFO for the past decade as Apple’s annual revenue grew from $8 billion to $171 billion and our global footprint expanded dramatically," Cook says.

"His guidance, leadership and expertise have been instrumental to Apple’s success, not only as our CFO but also in many areas beyond finance, as he frequently took on additional activities to assist across the company. His contributions and integrity as our CFO create a new benchmark for public company CFOs.

“Peter is also a dear friend I always knew I could count on. Although I am sad to see him leave, I am happy he is taking time for himself and his family.

"As all of us who know him would have expected, he has created a professional succession plan to ensure Apple doesn’t miss a beat.

“Luca has over 25 years of global experience in senior financial management, including roles as a public company CFO, and I am confident he will be a great CFO at Apple.

“When we were recruiting for a corporate controller, we met Luca and knew he would become Peter’s successor.

"His contributions to Apple have already been significant in his time with us and he has quickly gained respect from his colleagues throughout the company.”

As CFO, Oppenheimer oversees the controller, treasury, investor relations, tax, information systems, internal audit and facilities functions.

He started with Apple in 1996 as controller for the Americas, and in 1997 was promoted to vice president and Worldwide Sales controller and then promoted to corporate controller prior to being named CFO.

As Apple’s annual revenue has grown more than twentyfold during his time as CFO, Oppenheimer has overseen development of a disciplined global financial strategy, robust systems and procedures, and a very strong balance sheet.

Under his leadership, Apple has built a world-class finance team. Oppenheimer has managed facilities expansion including the addition of four data centers and Apple’s new campus in Cupertino, all of which will be powered by renewable energy.

“I love Apple and the people I have had the privilege to work with and after 18 years here, it is time for me to take time for myself and my family,” Oppenheimer adds.

“For quite some time, I have wanted to live on the central coast of California and get more involved at Cal Poly, my alma mater; spend more time with my wife and sons; travel to interesting parts of the world; and something I have wanted to do for years— finish the requirements for my pilot’s license.”

New man...

Cook says Maestri has deep knowledge in all of the major aspects of finance with over 25 years of experience building and leading finance teams in global companies with significant operating scale and complexity.

Prior to joining Apple, Maestri was CFO at both Nokia Siemens Networks and Xerox. Since moving to Cupertino in March 2013, Maestri has managed most of Apple’s financial functions, while also working closely with Apple’s senior leadership.