—Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer will retire at the end of September, the company announced today. Oppenheimer has served as the company’s CFO for the past decade, and has been a regular fixture on the company’s quarterly earnings conference calls. He’ll be replaced by Luca Maestri, who was previously Apple’s Vice President of Finance and Corporate Controller. The company hired Maestri away from Xerox early last year, where he served as the company’s CFO. At the time, speculation pointed to the company hiring him on as Oppenheimer’s successor.
Oppenheimer won’t be sitting on his hands during his retirement. He plans to spend more time with his family and finish the requirements for obtaining his pilot’s license. Oppenheimer also recently joined Goldman Sachs’ Board of Directors.
“(Oppenheimer’s) 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,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in the company’s press release. “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.”
—Vijay Vashee has joined the board of Verisium, a Redmond-based predictive analytics company. Vashee also serves on the Board of Trustees for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and is a member of the Computing and Information Science Advisory Council, Cornell University Entrepreneurship Council and the University of Chicago Entrepreneurship Board. The former Microsoft executive will be the only outside director on Verisium’s board, which also includes CEO Chris Matty and CTO Kevin Marcus.
“We are very fortunate to be adding a veteran of Vijay’s pedigree to our board,” Matty said in a press release.
—Avalara appointed Doug Burgum to its Board of Directors. Burgum led Great Plains Dynamics to its IPO in 1997, and its subsequent $1.1 billion acquisition by Microsoft in 2001. After leaving Microsoft in 2007, he went on to serve as chairman of SuccessFactors, which was acquired for $3.4 billion by SAP in 2012.
Burgum currently serves as a founding partner of Arthur Ventures in North Dakota, and is the Chairman of the Board for Atlassian, a company that specializes in enterprise software. He is also the Executive Chairman of the Board of Intelligence InSites, a company that specializes in healthcare operational intelligence software.
“Great Plains was our first integration 10 years ago and it helped Avalara become what it is today. As a long-time admirer of Doug’s leadership, I couldn’t be more pleased to welcome him to Avalara’s board of directors,” Avalara founder and CEO Scott McFarlane said in a press release. “We believe Doug’s exceptional background in building transformational technology companies will help us in our goal of accelerating what we believe is inevitable: the automation of the transactional tax compliance process for every business.”
—Ian Lurie will be stepping down from his post as CEO of Seattle-based Portent, and will instead take up a role as the company’s Principal Consultant and Agency Chairman. Steve Gahler will take the Chief Executive spot at the Seattle-based marketing tools company, where he has served as president since leaving CBS Television in 2012. As a part of his role as Principal Consultant, Lurie will lead the company’s new Actual Labs division, dedicated to creating new marketing tools.
“It’s an honor to take the reins from such a well-respected leader as Ian, and the time is right to make this change,” Gahler said.
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