Apple has announced a major change on its leadership team: Longtime Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri will step down from his role on January 1, 2025.
Maestri has, by all appearances, had a resoundingly successful run since he took on the CFO role a decade ago in 2014. In his tenure, Apple had its strongest fiscal decade ever, as the company's net income more than doubled.
Apple stock is worth nine times what it was when he stepped into the job. Certainly, that can't be attributed exclusively to the company's CFO, but it appears Maestri navigated both the popularity of the iPhone and the company's shift to services (which make five times more money than they did earlier in his time as CFO) well.
His named replacement, Kevan Parekh, isn't as publicly known but isn't a new face at Apple. He joined Apple in 2013 and currently holds the title of vice president of financial planning and analysis. Before that, he led worldwide sales, retail, and marketing finance.The announcement on Apple's newsroom website says that Maestri will remain with the company in a reduced role after stepping down from the CFO position. "Maestri will continue to lead the Corporate Services teams, including information systems and technology, information security, and real estate and development, reporting to Apple CEO Tim Cook," it says.
This may be more for optics than anything else, though. Shareholders are often skittish about significant leadership changes, especially when we're talking about an executive with such a strong track record. Keeping Maestri on (on paper, at least) could help assuage fears while Apple takes time to position Parekh as a strong leader in 2025. That's just speculation, though. We don't know for sure just how involved Maestri will be after Parekh takes his current seat.
Chances are Apple users won't notice much of a change, though, as the CFO role traditionally doesn't have much to do with product design or development. Still, it's unusual for Apple to see big leadership shakeups like this, so it's notable; it's also interesting because Cook was selected for the CEO role from the C-suite.
Update: Corrected wording that failed to accurately reflect Tim Cook's title at Apple prior to CEO.
