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Apple has announced that Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer will retire in September. Luca Maestri, Apple’s vice president of finance and corporate controller, will succeed him.
The news comes a day after Goldman Sachs announced the addition of Oppenheimer to its board of 13 directors, effective immediately.
Oppenheimer, who has been with Apple for 18 years, 10 of them as CFO, said in a March 4 statement that it was “time for me to take time for myself and my family.”
He added, “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.”
During Oppenheimer’s tenure as CFO, the company’s annual revenue grew more than twentyfold, from $8 billion to $171 billion, Apple said, adding that Oppenheimer developed for Apple a “disciplined global financial strategy” and a “world-class finance team.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook called Oppenheimer a “dear friend” and trusted colleague.
“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,” Cook said in the statement. “His contributions and integrity as our CFO create a new benchmark for public company CFOs.”
Cook added, “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.”
Before joining Apple a year ago, Maestri was CFO at Nokia Siemens Networks and Xerox.
Maestri began his career at General Motors, where over the course of 20 years he held finance and operating roles in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. His last role with GM was as CFO of its operations in Europe, which span more than 45 countries.
Maestri was educated in Rome and Boston and, in addition to the United States, has lived and worked in Italy, Poland, Ireland, Switzerland, Singapore, Thailand, Brazil and Germany.
Oppenheimer will transition the CFO role to Maestri in June, followed by the remainder of his responsibilities Apple added, making for a “seamless transition.”
Oppenheimer’s departure is the latest changing piece in a mobile phone market experiencing much rearrangement. BlackBerry took on a new CEO in November, John Chen, who has begun assembling a new executive team around him; Microsoft has a weeks-new CEO, Satya Nadella, who today also announced some employee changes; Microsoft purchased Nokia’s handset business, absolving Stephen Elop of his CEO title; and with Lenovo’s purchase of Motorola from Google, Moto CEO Dennis Woodside made a leap to the chief operating officer role at Dropbox.
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