Preckwinkle Taps Rizki as New Cook County Chief Financial Officer

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle today announced she is naming Ammar Rizki as the County’s next Chief Financial Officer, pending Board of Commissioners’ approval.

Preckwinkle will present Rizki’s appointment at the September 13 County Board of Commissioners meeting. The appointment will be considered first by the Board's Legislation and Intergovernmental Relations Committee and then by the full Board at its next meeting.

“Ammar Rizki is supremely qualified and is an exceptional candidate for Cook County Chief Financial Officer,” Preckwinkle said. “Ammar has a thorough understanding of Cook County’s finances and will guide our continued efforts to ensure long-term financial stability.”

Rizki has been the Acting Chief Financial Officer since June 2017 and previously served as Deputy Chief Financial Officer starting in August 2013. In that role, he has helped devise and implement a multi-year financial plan to ensures that County’s debt and pension obligations grow no more than two percent, which is the Federal Reserve’s long-term inflation forecast, ensuring manageable growth without creating unnecessary burden on County operations

Additionally, Rizki managed the functional implementation of the Countywide Enterprise Resource Planning System to modernize and update the County’s antiquated financial administration systems, resulting in streamlining of financial processes, improved reporting and increased productivity. 

Rizki has a diverse background in municipal finance, having started his work for Cook County starting in 2010 as Deputy Revenue Director. In that role, he led initiatives to modernize the Department of Revenue’s operations, improve tax compliance and increase taxpayer education. Prior to that he held a number of managerial and analytic roles in banking and investment management. 

As Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Rizki worked closely with previous Chief Financial Officer Ivan Samstein to reduce taxpayer funding of the health system operations by hundreds of millions of dollars, reduced bonded debt, advocate for pension reform, cut costs, streamline operations and improve services. 

Rizki succeeds Samstein, who left his position as the County's Chief Financial Officer in June to become Chief Financial Officer at the University of Chicago.

“I am honored to serve as Chief Financial Officer and eager to build on President Preckwinkle’s efforts to encourage long-term fiscal responsibility and financial stability,” Rizki said. 

Rizki holds an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Illinois at Chicago.