CHICAGO — Former public finance banker and credit analyst Ivan Samstein has joined Cook County, Ill.’s finance team as deputy chief financial officer.
Samstein replaces former deputy CFO Takashi Reinbold, who will take over as the county’s acting comptroller.
Samstein will work under CFO Tariq Malhance and county President Toni Preckwinkle, who took over Cook County’s reins in late 2010. .
“We are thrilled to welcome Ivan to the team,” Preckwinkle said in an email. “His past experience will make him a valued asset to the Bureau of Finance as we continue to make county government more effective and more efficient for taxpayers.”
Prior to coming to the county, Samstein was a Chicago-based banker with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He was cut by the firm last September as part of the bank’s widespread layoffs.
He began his public finance banking career in 2004 at ABN AMRO Financial Services Inc., the parent of Chicago-based LaSalle Bank. Bank of America acquired the firm in 2007, and Samstein was the only member of the municipal bond department who survived the merger.
Samstein worked as as a public finance credit analyst at Moody’s Investors Service from 1999 to 2004. There, he was the lead analyst for local government debt issuance in Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri.
Samstein is also a commissioned officer in the Army National Guard and served as an intelligence officer for an Illinois Army National Guard infantry battalion in Afghanistan in 2008 and 2009 while on leave from Bank of America.
While in Afghanistan, he managed one of the military’s most successful weapons buy-back programs, paying out as much as $10,000 in cash transactions a week, according to his resume.
