CHICAGO – The Cook County, Ill. Board of Commissioners Wednesday approved the appointment of Ivan Samstein as the county’s new chief financial officer.
County President Toni Preckwinkle tapped Samstein, who was the county’s deputy CFO for a year, as acting CFO last month after Tariq Malhance stepped down from the post. Samstein’s appointment became official with Wednesday’s unanimous board vote.
“These appointments are going to bring a lot of wisdom to county government,” Commissioner Larry Sufferdin said at the meeting, referring to Samstein and a handful of other county hires.
Before he joined the county in 2012, Samstein was a Chicago-based banker with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He was cut by the firm in September 2011 as part of the bank’s widespread layoffs.
Samstein worked as a public finance credit analyst at Moody’s Investors Service from 1999 to 2004. He was lead analyst for local government debt issuance in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri.
