Kevan Parekh takes over as Apple CFO

Indian American executive Kevan Parekh has taken over as Apple’s senior vice president and chief financial officer (CFO) on Jan 1, 2025 after playing a key role in the tech giant’s financial, business and product development planning for over a decade.

Parekh, who joined the company in 2013 took over the position from Luca Maestri, who served as the CFO at Apple for ten years. He reports directly to to CEO Tim Cook.

Along with the promotion, Parekh’s annual salary has increased to $1 million, the company stated in a Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing on Jan 3. “…he (Parekh) is eligible to participate in the Apple Inc. Executive Cash Incentive Plan for fiscal year 2025 on the same basis as Apple’s other named executive officers,” the company added.

As per Apple, Parekh was also awarded with performance based restricted stock units (“RSUs”) under the Apple Inc. Employee Stock Plan 2022, which is scheduled to vest on Oct 1, 2027.

“For more than a decade, Kevan has been an indispensable member of Apple’s finance leadership team, and he understands the company inside and out. His sharp intellect, wise judgment, and financial brilliance make him the perfect choice to be Apple’s next CFO,” Cook stated announcing his promotion last August.

In his new role Parekh oversees Apple’s accounting, business support, financial planning and analysis, treasury, investor relations, internal audit, and tax functions.

Prior to becoming CFO, he served as Apple’s vice president of Financial Planning and Analysis. Before that, he served as Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Finance, supporting a number of different functions throughout his tenure, including Engineering, iTunes, Marketing, Retail, and Sales.

Parekh’s elevation comes at a time when Apple is shifting its manufacturing focus to India. The tech giant is mulling to assemble 32% of the global iPhone production volume and 26% of its value in India by 2026-27.

In its manufacturing effort, Apple recently marked its first direct presence in India by setting up a new subsidiary called Apple Operations India. This subsidiary aims to focus on research, design, testing and providing support to third party manufacturers.

Amid growing sales, the company is also mulling to open four more retail stores across  Bengaluru, Pune, Delhi NCR, and Mumbai.

Parekh has over 20 years of experience leading global finance teams at major companies. Before joining Apple, Parekh held a number of senior leadership roles at Thomson Reuters and General Motors, including working across Europe and Asia.

Parekh graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan and earned an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Parekh has become the latest Indian origin top executive at a US-based big tech company. Currently, Sundar Pichai heads Google parent Alphabet, while Satya Nadella is the CEO of Microsoft.

Additionally, Vaibhav Taneja is the CFO of EV major Tesla, while Aparna Bawa was appointed as the chief operating officer of Zoom in May 2020. There is also Dixit Joshi, who overtook as the CFO of Credit Suisse in 2022, while Shantanu Narayen has been leading Adobe since 2007.

(This post was originally published by The American Bazaar.)