There and Back Again CFO Eugene Munin’s Path to AMU
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ecently, AMU Magazine sat down with AMU’s Vice President for Finance and Administration, Eugene Munin. As with all of the members of the University Council, AMU’s executive management team, Gene has a brilliant and impressive past. With his Catholic ped-
a v e m a r i a m a g a z i n e | f a l l 2019
igree (attending Catholic institutions from primary school
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through a doctorate) and innate personal attraction to higher learning (five advanced degrees… and counting?), we’re so glad to have him here.
Gene Munin first came to Ave Maria in 2011 to serve as Budget Director for the University and as an adjunct professor at Ave Maria School of Law. This move came on the heels of successful stints in law and finance where he worked both in private legal practice, as a criminal prosecutor, and Budget Director for the city of Chicago under Mayor Richard M. Daley. After the worst budget crisis in Chicago since the Great Depression, Daley retired
from public office, and Munin was poised to explore his next career move. That next step was to AMU. That first stint in Ave wasn’t to last long, however. Gene’s wife, Kristin, a police sergeant in Chicago nearing a full pension and therefore needing to remain employed on the force, stayed in Chicago, and the two went back and forth between Chicago and Ave Maria while she finished up her career and he settled into his new position. This arrangement was short-lived. Shortly after Munin undertook his new responsibilities, Kristin became pregnant with their first child. Gene decided to resign his position at Ave, return to Chicago in 2012 for the birth of their son, Michael, and support Kristin through the completion of