Paul Sumerall

Paul Maass Sumerall, 58, of Long Beach, California passed away Thursday, December 20, 2012, at his home. He is survived by his loving wife, Nancy Sumerall; his three sons, Harrison Sumerall (Kathi), Alexander Sumerall and William Sumerall; his mother, Maria Sumerall; and his two sisters, Mia Terrell (Johnnie) and Diane Green (Hal).

He worked as managing director of Merchants Bank of California where most of us in the MT Industry had the chance to meet him. Paul had a true gift for recognizing talent and encouraging people to realize their potential. Paul was not motivated by recognition, but by the satisfaction of a job well done. He was a frequent participant in our IMTC Conferences. His years of experience in the Banking industry and in Money transmitting made him an expert in the field.

He was Senior Vice President – Global Corporate & Investment Banking at Bank of America (1991-1994), Vice President – Corporate Investment Banking at SunTrust Bank, Vice President – Europe & Africa for Vigo Remittance  Corp (2001-2004), Director Business Development for Global Payments –  for Europhil and Dolex units, based in Prague and was a remittance consultant in Kenya and Italy before joining Merchants Bank in 2009.

He got his Masters from The Johns Hopkins University – Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)- European Area / Economics in 1982 after receiving his B.A. in History & German from Millsaps College
in 1976.  He was a US Peace Corps volunteer in a village in Tunisia for 2 years as an English language instructor.

Not only did Paul touch everyone around him, he made everyone better.  He will be missed for sure. Paul had a way to ask questions that he already knew the answer to so that we could learn by ourselves and believe we were teaching him when he at all times he was teaching us…   Fernando Trevino