Apple Senior VP and CFO Peter Oppenheimer to retire

At the end of September, Apple's senior vice president and CFO, Peter Oppenheimer, will retire from the business. In his place will be Apple's current vice president of Finance and corporate controller Luca Maestri. This transition will also include Maestri's role of CFO continuing to report to Apple CEO Tim Cook directly.

Peter Oppenheimer has been with Apple since 1996. Back then he was hired as controller for the Americas, moving forward in 1997 to take over as vice president and Worldwide Sales controller. After that, Oppenheimer was bumped to CFO where he's been ever since.

"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.

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." – Peter Oppenheimer

Maestri has been CFO at Nokia Siemens Networks as well as Xerox and joined Apple in 2013. Apple is keen to make clear his "over 25 years of experience" in building and leading finance teams for major companies with global reach this week as he swiftly takes higher roles here within the iPhone and MacBook maker. Maestri has also worked with General Motors where he worked for 20 years in finance and operating roles.

"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." – Tim Cook

As you can see above, it would appear that Cook and the rest of the team in charge of these decisions knew early on that Maestri would eventually take Oppenheimer's role. Whether or not the decision to move now was taken by Oppenheimer with as much pre-emptive broad consideration is not known.