Paul Vinelli

Paul Vinelli (November 7, 1922 – February 18, 1997) was an Italian-American-Honduran economist and banker. He was sent to Honduras in 1949 by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to advise the government on banking and tax legislation. He was instrumental in the creation of the Central Bank of Honduras and the National Bank for Agricultural Development in 1950. He remained working as an economic advisor to the Honduran government for six years. In future years he continued to be one of the strongest guides of Honduran economic policy.

In 1957 he joined Banco Atlántida, then one of the largest banks in Honduras, which during the 1960s and 1970s was a correspondent bank of Chase Manhattan Bank. He was Chief Executive Officer from 1978 to 1995, and chairman of the board from 1978 until his death in 1997. He helped establish the School of Economics at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras where he taught for twenty-five years. In 1996 he was named Honduran Ambassador to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Vinelli was also noted for his role in the development of financial services and industry in Honduras. He helped create and was president of many companies, in the areas of paper, hotels, real estate, insurance, and others. He was a founder of Atlantic Bank Limited Belize. He was decorated by the governments of Chile, Honduras, Italy, Panama and the United States. In 1980, he was kidnapped by the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) and held for 75 days. Provided by Wikipedia