????蘋(píng)果（Apple）多年的財(cái)務(wù)總監(jiān)彼得?奧本海默在職業(yè)生涯中一向非常低調(diào)，除了公司的季度收益電話會(huì)議之外，他很少在其他公開(kāi)場(chǎng)合講話，自覺(jué)地把舞臺(tái)讓給喬布斯、蒂姆?庫(kù)克以及蘋(píng)果的其他高管。就連鐵桿果粉也很難在街上把他認(rèn)出來(lái)。

????不過(guò)這周情況就不一樣了。上周二，蘋(píng)果宣布這位兩朝元老即將退休。奧本海默的功成身退使他躋身為商業(yè)史上最成功的CFO之一。財(cái)務(wù)工作的特點(diǎn)就是要甘居幕后，而且很難脫離其他高管獨(dú)立開(kāi)展工作。今年51歲的奧本海默在蘋(píng)果的崛起之路上扮演了重要的角色，尤其是他擔(dān)任CFO的這十年，蘋(píng)果迅速崛起成一家全球性的大公司，坐擁1600億美元現(xiàn)金。

????BGC Partners公司的分析師科林?吉利斯認(rèn)為：“他的表現(xiàn)非常了不起，我認(rèn)為他完全可以被視為最優(yōu)秀的CFO之一。”

????奧本海默的退休，適逢蘋(píng)果正在經(jīng)歷一個(gè)關(guān)鍵時(shí)期。蘋(píng)果已經(jīng)感受到了來(lái)自谷歌（Google）和三星（Samsung）等競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手的壓力。蘋(píng)果標(biāo)志性產(chǎn)品iPhone和iPad的銷量已經(jīng)開(kāi)始放緩，投資者們大聲疾呼，要求蘋(píng)果盡快推出新的重磅產(chǎn)品重振聲勢(shì)。

????當(dāng)然，作為CFO，奧本海默并不直接負(fù)責(zé)公司的日常運(yùn)營(yíng)，那是蒂姆?庫(kù)克和其他高管的職責(zé)。但是在蘋(píng)果的18年時(shí)間里，奧本海默既經(jīng)歷了公司瀕臨破產(chǎn)的絕境，也經(jīng)歷了它的復(fù)興，看著它一路走向全球最有價(jià)值的公司，因而這位兩朝元老對(duì)蘋(píng)果也有著不容忽視的影響力。

????奧本海默的財(cái)務(wù)管理為蘋(píng)果公司的驚人增長(zhǎng)做出了很大貢獻(xiàn)。在他擔(dān)任CFO期間，蘋(píng)果的年?duì)I收從80億美元增長(zhǎng)到現(xiàn)在的1710億美元，翻了20多番。另外他也設(shè)計(jì)了許多復(fù)雜的避稅方法，使蘋(píng)果廣大的海外業(yè)務(wù)的稅務(wù)成本降到了最低。雖然很多人批評(píng)他鉆了稅制的漏洞，但他堅(jiān)決為這個(gè)策略辯護(hù)，而且去年有與庫(kù)克一起參加國(guó)會(huì)聽(tīng)證時(shí)，還成功地打消了一些人的敵意。

????奧本海默身為蘋(píng)果高層團(tuán)隊(duì)的一員，在一些重大決策中也扮演了重要角色。另外他還幫助公司確定新產(chǎn)品價(jià)格，管理生產(chǎn)成本，預(yù)測(cè)存貨等等。另外奧本海默還要負(fù)責(zé)一個(gè)很敏感的任務(wù)，那就是設(shè)定給華爾街看的季度業(yè)績(jī)預(yù)期。（然而在蘋(píng)果快速增長(zhǎng)的那些年，這份季度預(yù)期通常都制訂的太保守了，基本上每次實(shí)際收益都超過(guò)了預(yù)期，令它的準(zhǔn)頭不高。）

????CFO聯(lián)盟（CFO Alliance，一個(gè)擁有5000余會(huì)員的財(cái)務(wù)高管組織）執(zhí)行長(zhǎng)尼克?艾拉克說(shuō)：“他是蒂姆?庫(kù)克的左右手，是在制定和執(zhí)行政策上最有發(fā)言權(quán)的人之一。而且不光是在財(cái)務(wù)方面，在有關(guān)消費(fèi)體驗(yàn)和全球市場(chǎng)的任何事上都是這樣?！?/p>

????奧本海默在管理蘋(píng)果的巨額現(xiàn)金方面發(fā)現(xiàn)自己竟然沒(méi)有前例可循。從來(lái)沒(méi)有一家上市公司擁有過(guò)這么多的現(xiàn)金。多年來(lái)，奧本海默以及蘋(píng)果的其他高管堅(jiān)持持有大量現(xiàn)金以備應(yīng)急。最后在包括激進(jìn)投資人卡爾?伊坎等投資人的壓力下，蘋(píng)果高管放松了“紅線”，決定花1000億美元用于分紅和回購(gòu)股票，而此舉有助于股價(jià)進(jìn)一步上漲。

????Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's longtime chief financial officer, kept an especially low profile during his tenure. He rarely spoke publicly beyond the company's quarterly earnings calls, and happily left the spotlight to Steve Jobs, Tim Cook, and other high-profile members of the company's senior executive team. Even Apple (AAPL) fanatics would have trouble recognizing him on the street.

????That surely won't be the case this week. On Tuesday, Apple announced Oppenheimer's plans to retire. His departure will end one of the most remarkable runs by any chief financial officer, which by the job's very nature is largely behind the scenes and difficult to isolate from the work of other senior executives. Oppenheimer, 51, played a huge role in Apple's rise, and during the decade he served as the company's chief financial officer, Apple blossomed into a huge global business with a $160 billion stockpile of cash.

????"A tremendous performance," said Colin Gillis, an analyst with BGC Partners. "I think he deserves to be ranked up there with some of the best CFOs."

????Oppenheimer's retirement comes at a pivotal moment for Apple, which is feeling the pressure from rivals like Google and Samsung. Growth in sales of Apple's iconic devices -- the iPhone and iPad -- is slowing, and investors are clamoring for new blockbuster products to take up the slack.

????Of course, ultimate responsibility for day-to-day operations and innovation lies not with the chief financial officer but with chief executive Cook and others on his leadership team. Still, Oppenheimer had formidable sway during an 18-year career that spanned Apple's near-bankruptcy and its eventual comeback as the world's most valuable company.

????His financial management kept up with and helped to fuel Apple's astounding growth. During his tenure, annual revenue rose more than 20-fold to $171 billion from just $8 billion. He also engineered many of the complex maneuvers that helped Apple pay minimal taxes on its vast overseas business. Although intensely criticized for using the tax loopholes, he vigorously defended the strategy and, during testimony before a Congressional committee last year with Cook, succeeded in deflecting some of the hostility.

????As a member of Apple's senior executive team, Oppenheimer played a critical role in major decisions. He helped determine the price of new products, manage manufacturing costs, and forecast inventory. Oppenheimer also handled the sensitive job of setting quarterly earnings guidance for Wall Street. (During Apple's years of rapid growth, that guidance ended up being so conservative that the company routinely beat it, making the exercise largely irrelevant.)

????"He was Tim Cook's right-hand man -- one of the key voices in setting strategy and executing on it," said Nick Araco, chief executive of the CFO Alliance, a networking group of 5,000 finance executives. "This wasn't just about the finance function but everything that touches the consumer experience and global market."

????In overseeing Apple's gargantuan cash hoard, Oppenheimer found himself in uncharted territory. No other public company had ever had so much money sitting around. For years, he and his fellow executives clung to the cash, mostly as a rainy day fund. Ultimately, under pressure from investors, including the activist gadfly Carl Icahn, Apple executives loosened the purse strings and embarked on a plan to spend $100 billion on paying dividends and buying back shares, which helps to lift the stock price.