Luca Maestri will be handed the reins when Apple Inc.'s Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer retires in September, transferring financial stewardship of the world's largest technology company to the Italian-born corporate controller, Reuters reported.
Oppenheimer, 51, had been CFO since 2004 and was the architect behind a $100 billion capital return program established a year ago in response to demands the company do more with its ballooning cash hoard.
According to Reuters, Maestri is not expected to pursue radical changes to the iPhone maker's strategy on that front.
As the smartphone maker grapples with slowing revenue growth, increasingly saturated or commoditized markets and intensifying competition from the likes of Samsung Electronics, Maestri, a 50-year-old born in Rome, will take over as the CFO.
Apple's shares were up 0.6 percent at $530.87, Reuters reported.
Since the company is also under increasing pressure to come up with the next big thing, some investors are betting that Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook will finally unveil a revolutionary new product this year.
"Maestri will be assuming this role at an interesting time - when Apple is in the midst of launching more services and likely needs to convince investors that it has more consistent revenue streams in a commoditizing smart phone market," Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes wrote on Tuesday.
"We know Maestri quite well and believe he will support consistent plans for capital return and thoughtful, achievable guidance."
The executive joined Apple from Xerox Corp in 2013. He spent 20 years at General Motors where he worked as CFO of several units including GM Europe. Before joining Xerox, he was CFO of network equipment maker Nokia Siemens Networks, Reuters reported.
"While we view Mr. Oppenheimer's retirement as a loss to the company, we expect the transition to be fairly seamless," Wells Fargo Securities analyst Maynard Um said in a research note.
Oppenheimer, who joined Apple in 1996, will start handing over in June to Maestri. Named to the board of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on Monday, he said in Tuesday's statement that he would use some of his free time to complete his pilot's license, Reuters reported.
"When we were recruiting for a corporate controller, we met Luca and knew he would become Peter's successor," Cook said.
During Oppenheimer's tenure as CFO, Cook noted that Apple's revenue had risen to $171 billion from $8 billion, Reuters reported.
