Susan Griffin is retiring at the end of September after 25 years as finance director for the village of Lake Bluff.
Q. Where are you from originally?
A. I was born in Rogers Park (neighborhood of) Chicago. I grew up partly there and mostly in Gurnee and Wildwood, which is an unincorporated area of Grayslake.
Q. Did you grow up wanting to be a municipal finance director?
A. (Laughs) No, I just really enjoyed accounting in high school. I started working at a bank out of high school. Then a job opened in the city of Lake Forest. I worked there for 12 years, starting out as a bookkeeper and left there as principal accountant. Then I went to the village of Lake Zurich and was finance director for 18 or 19 months.
Q. You earned your college degrees locally – College of Lake County, then a bachelor’s at Barat College and finally an MBA at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. Didn’t you want to head to some other part of the country for college?
A. I came from a large family. There were eight kids and I was the third. There wasn’t a lot of money. I think I might have liked to, but it wasn’t something I grew up with, saving for college or let’s talk about college. It was, “You need to get a job.”
Q. But you went to college too?
A. I had gone for a job as a bookkeeper. It was someone at an accounting firm who gave me the advice that you will never be taken seriously as an accountant until you get a bachelor’s degree. I went to (college) at night.
Q. What do you like about being finance director?
A. You get so much broad experience. Sometimes people working in smaller accounting firms only work in treasury or budget or finance preparation or compliance. I get exposure to all of that.
Q. What do you do outside work?
A. I love to go to concerts and plays. A group of friends, we do things. We travel, go to plays, concerts, movies. I like to golf. I’m not as good as I wish, but now I plan to take lessons.
Q. Any other plans for after you retire?
A. Some travel. I have a bucket list trip I’m doing to New Zealand and Australia. Things around the house. I might work part time. I’m not sure specifically what at.
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