Peter Oppenheimer, the Chief Financial Officer of Apple Inc, will be retiring this September, TechCrunch reported citing an announcement from the iPhone maker.

Apple VP of Finance and Corporate Controller Luca Maestri will be replacing Oppenheimer starting in June when he will start taking over the role that Oppenheimer will leave behind. The responsibilities handled by the outgoing CFO will then be gradually given to Maestri, the report said.

In the official statement about the matter, Cook lauded the efforts of Oppenheimer and the fact that he had come up with the succession plan for the company. Cook said, "Peter has served as our CFO for the past decade as Apple's annual revenue grew from $8 billion to $171 billion and our global footprint expanded dramatically. His guidance, leadership and expertise have been instrumental to Apple's success, not only as our CFO but also in many areas beyond finance, as he frequently took on additional activities to assist across the company. His contributions and integrity as our CFO create a new benchmark for public company CFOs. Peter is also a dear friend I always knew I could count on. Although I am sad to see him leave, I am happy he is taking time for himself and his family. As all of us who know him would have expected, he has created a professional succession plan to ensure Apple doesn't miss a beat."

Reuters reported that Maestri will be reporting directly to CEO Tim Cook. He joined Apple last year after a stint at Xerox Corp where he served as the CFO. Oppenheimer said that he would utilize a portion of his free time to finally get his pilot's license, the report said.

Maestri has a reputation for being an expert at buyback transactions. He has probably aided the tech giant to put to action its continuing plan to transfer Apple shares to Apple's more dependable long-term investors from speculators, TechCrunch reported.