Apple
Apple has announced a major change in its leadership team: longtime CFO Luca Maestri will step down from his position on January 1, 2025.
Maestri has had what appears to be a highly successful career since taking on the role of CFO a decade ago in 2014. During his tenure, Apple recorded its strongest fiscal year ever, with the company's net profit more than doubling.
Apple stock is worth nine times more today than it was when he took the job. Of course, this can't be attributed entirely to the company's CFO, but it seems that Maestri has handled both the popularity of the iPhone and the company's shift to services (which, during his time as CFO, make five times more money than they used to).
His successor, Kevan Parekh, is not as well known but is not a new face at Apple. He joined Apple in 2013 and is currently vice president of financial planning and analysis. Before that, he led worldwide sales, retail and marketing finance.
The announcement on the Apple Newsroom website states that Maestri will remain at 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, and will report to Apple CEO Tim Cook,” it says.
However, this could be more for optics than anything else. Shareholders are often nervous about significant leadership changes, especially when it involves an executive with such a strong track record. Keeping Maestri in place (at least on paper) could help assuage fears while Apple takes its time to position Parekh as a strong leader in 2025. That's just speculation, though. We don't know exactly how involved Maestri will be after Parekh takes his current post.
Apple users probably won't notice the change much, as the CFO role traditionally doesn't have much to do with product design or development. Still, it's unusual for Apple to have such major leadership shakeups, so this is notable; it's also interesting because Cook was selected for the CEO role from the top tier of management.
Update: Corrected wording that did not accurately reflect Tim Cook's title at Apple before his appointment as CEO.