Apple has announced that Betsy Rafael, corporate controller, principal accounting officer and vice president, will retire from the company effective Oct. 19. She has served in this capacity since January 2008.

With over 20 years of finance and operations experience at small and large high-tech companies, Rafael previously served as vice president of corporate finance and planning at Cisco Systems. Prior to this position, she also was controller, vice president, and principal accounting officer.

Rafael joined Cisco Systems from Aspect Communications, where  she served as chief administrative officer, chief financial officer and executive vice president of finance.

Earlier positions held by Rafael include CFO and senior vice president at numerous companies, including Escalate Corporation; Silicon Graphics; technical computing company SGI. She also has held management positions at Apple and Sun Microsystems. She began her career at Arthur Young & Company.