Apple Inc.'s departing chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimerpresided over a sales boom that filled company coffers with arecord cash pile. His successor, Luca Maestri, inherits a companystung by slowing growth and increasing scrutiny of how it handlesthat hoard.

The Italian-born executive is becoming Apple's main money manand liaison to Wall Street in June, at a time when the world's mostvaluable company is under pressure to reverse a stock slide, wardoff activist investors and defend a cash strategy that critics sayshields it from paying taxes.

“When you're the CFO of the number one company in the world, youhave a pretty big magnifying glass on you,” said Laurence Balter,an analyst at Oracle Investment Research, which advisesshareholders.

In the largely staid and behind-the-scenes corporate financeworld, the CFO job at Apple is among the world's most high profile.Apart from dealing with shareholders, Maestri will manage Apple'sspending as it invests in research and development, and buysbillions of dollars of equipment and components to manufacture itsproducts. The Cupertino, California-based company, which has $159billion in cash, also is in the midst of a buyback and dividendplan that will return $100 billion to shareholders.

Maestri will oversee Apple's accounting and regulatory filings,handling of currencies from sales around the world, and debt afterthe iPhone maker sold $17 billion in bonds last year. He willsupervise how Apple handles taxes, which drew the ire of U.S.senators last year for policies that helped the company avoidpaying some fees. Maestri also takes the reins of the acquisitionsteam, which has stepped d its dealmaking.

Apple, which hired Maestri as corporate controller last year,declined to comment or make the 50-year-old executive available. Ina March 4 statement announcing Maestri's promotion to CFO, AppleChief Executive Officer Tim Cook said, “When we were recruiting fora corporate controller, we met Luca and knew he would becomePeter's successor.”

Defending Apple is set to be in Maestri's future, as the companyhas become a target of activist investors such as Carl Icahn andDavid Einhorn. Both criticized the iPhone maker in the past 18months for sitting on cash and pushed the company to increase itspayouts to shareholders.

Selling Shares

Investors such as Fidelity Investments, BlackRock Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Janus Capital Management have also soldApple shares in recent months, according to data compiled byBloomberg.

Maestri, who has an affinity for strong coffee, good wine andArgentinian steak houses, brings international experience to Appleas the company increases sales in China and elsewhere. During hiscareer, Maestri has lived in Italy, Poland, Ireland, Switzerland,Singapore, Thailand, Brazil and Germany.

“He's very much a global citizen,” said Richard Simonson,executive vice president and CFO of Sabre Holdings Corp., who hiredMaestri to work at Nokia Siemens Networks in 2008. Notably, “heknows how to sort through complex situations, and focus on what'simportant,” Simonson said.

Maestri spent the bulk of his career at General Motors Co.,culminating in a position as its head finance executive in Europe.His 20-year tenure there came to an end in 2008 just as the companywas feeling the brunt of the financial crisis that would send itinto bankruptcy in 2009.

At a financial review meeting in Zurich in early 2008, Maestrispoke up so passionately about the company's dire fiscal positionand the need to take bold steps to head off the crisis that acolleague, Chris Preuss, asked why the executive was so concerned.Maestri said GM's situation was so dire that Preuss should thinkabout getting a new job.

“He looked at me squarely and said 'This isn't going to end welland you need to think about what you're going to do because Detroithas its head in the ground,'” Preuss, who left GM in 2009 and todayworks for Ford Motor Co., said in an interview. “It was probablyone of the best pieces of advice I've ever gotten.”

Maestri is a tough deal maker, said Fritz Henderson, former GMCEO who was Maestri's boss at the automaker. They worked closelytogether when the company wound down its relationship with Fiat SpAin 2005, with GM paying $2 billion to end the partnership with thestruggling Italian carmaker.

Yankees Fan

“He was a very tenacious negotiator but he was also a practicalguy because he realized he needed to get things done,” Hendersonsaid. “'He was considered one of the best rising finance executivesin the company.''

Maestri also has years of U.S. experience. After graduating fromLuiss University in Rome with a bachelor's degree in economics, hegot a master's degree in management science at Boston University.He became a fan of the New York Yankees and is more likely to talkabout his kids and sports than work at dinners with colleagues,said Gary Kabureck, a former colleague.

After departing GM in 2008 Maestri went to Nokia Siemens as thenetworking company restructured its business, and then joined XeroxInc. as its finance chief in 2011. At Xerox, he worked with CEOUrsula Burns as she shifted the company away from strictly being amaker of photocopy machines to a services business.

''Luca is a stellar finance executive whose contributions havebrought great value to the transformation of Xerox into a servicesenterprise,” Burns said in a statement.

In his two years at the Norwalk, Connecticut-based company,Maestri helped integrate the 2009 acquisition of technologyservices company Affiliated Computer Services. While Xerox had noshare repurchase plan in 2010, Maestri instituted a $700 millionbuyback in 2011 and another for $1.1 billion in 2012. He was adeptat navigating the company's culture, a skill that will serve himwell at Apple, said Kabureck, who was Xerox's chief accountingofficer.

“He understood big organizations have their own culture andspeed and way of doing things,” Kabureck said.

While Maestri has experience working at companies in crisis ortransition, Oppenheimer has been at Apple since 1996 and became CFOin 2004, just as the company went on a roll with a slew ofinnovative products. The stock soared more than forty-fold duringhis tenure and he recently joined the board of Goldman Sachs GroupInc. Oppenheimer will remain with Apple through the end ofSeptember to help with the transition.

Courting Investors

Maestri can build trust with Apple investors by giving moreinformation on the company's plans for the cash on its balancesheet, as well as more detailed financial guidance for the comingquarters, Balter said.

Some of Maestri's responsibilities may be limited. Cook alsotakes a prominent role with investors, including having dinner withIcahn when the activist criticized Apple last year.

“The most important people at Apple are those that are workingon the development of new products,” said Walter Piecyk, an analystat BTIG LLC in New York, who has a buy rating on the stock.

Maestri is excited for the challenge, said Simonson, who spoketo him after Apple announced the promotion.

“He's thrilled he proved to be the choice,” Simonson said.

Bloomberg News

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