Dive Brief:

• Apple said its longtime CFO Luca Maestri will step down from his role as finance chief on Jan. 1 but will continue to lead the tech giant’s corporate services teams, including information system, technology, information security and real estate development, the company announced Monday. 
• The Cupertino, California-based company said Kevan Parekh, Apple’s VP of financial planning and analysis, will succeed Maestri and become CFO in a “planned succession.” 
• CEO Tim Cook called Maestri an “extraordinary partner in managing Apple for the long term,” in a statement included in the release, which credited Maestri’s financial discipline and investments with helping the company more than double its revenue during his time as CFO. Cook also said Parekh’s “sharp intellect, wise judgment and financial brilliance make him the perfect choice to be Apple's next CFO.”

Dive Insight:

Maestri, who joined the company in March of 2013 as corporate controller, has held Apple’s finance reins since May of 2014, according to his LinkedIn account. He previously held CFO roles at Xerox, Nokia Siemens Networks and General Motors Europe.

During his tenure, Maestri gained a reputation for keeping Apple lean, with the company’s expenses and corporate research remaining low, while many in the technology industry splurged on splashy projects, The Wall Street Journal reported. Apple also did not hire extensively during the pandemic as some competitors did, avoiding “large-scale layoffs,” the report said. 

Given Maestri’s accomplishments, investors may not be altogether keen to see him step down from the seat, some analysts said. “Even though this is part of a planned succession, we expect investors will be mildly disappointed given the significant progress Apple has made on several fronts under the leadership of Luca Maestri,”JPMorgan analysts led by Samik Chatterjee wrote in a Tuesday report. 

Under Maestri’s guidance, the company has positioned itself as a services company, enabled a higher valuation multiple, consistently executed to targets, and maintained “robust operational and financial discipline,” according to the report. “With the appointment of Kevan Parekh, who has worked extensively in a senior role with both Tim Cook and Luca Maestri, investors will likely be looking for ‘more of the same’ and a seamless CFO transition,” the report said.  

Maestri’s work was rewarded by Apple; the long-time finance chief was one of the top 10 highest paid CFOs by total compensation in 2023, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In 2023 Maestri’s compensation totaled $26.9 million, comprised largely of $22.3 million in stock awards, $3.57 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation and $1 million in salary, according to a Jan. 11 proxy filing that listed his age at 60. Apple did not respond to a request for information about Parekh’s future pay. 

Maestri in a statement in the release called it the “greatest privilege” of his professional life to serve at Apple and work with Tim Cook. He also said he had “enormous confidence” in Parekh.

Parekh currently leads FP&A, G&A, benefits finance, investor relations, and market research at Apple, according to the release. He joined Apple 11 years ago from Thomson Reuters, where he held the role of corporate treasurer and, before that, the position of VP of Financial, Professional Division. From 2004 until 2009, Parekh held multiple roles at General Motors, according to his LinkedIn account. Parekh is an electrical engineer with a Bachelor’s of Science degree from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

The insider pick Parekh comes as the share of companies choosing external CFO candidates hit a 10-year-high in H1, raising concern about the state of succession planning in corporations, according to a recent report from Crist|Kolder Associates, a Downers Grove, Illinois-based executive search firm. 

While there are always risks when hiring new executives, internal candidates carry lower risks because they bring institutional knowledge of the business, said Josh Crist, a co-managing partner at Crist|Kolder. “Apple gets an ‘A’ for succession planning. This move ‘de-risks’ the hire…you know exactly what you are getting in a very important chair,” Crist said in an email. 

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with comments from the JPMorgan report and Josh Crist, a co-managing partner at the executive search firm Crist Kolder.