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Paul J. Hanna

New position: Senior vice president, AmSouth Bank, Tampa. Previous position: Executive vice president, SunTrust Bank, Tampa

Paul Hanna sees his role as a wealth management team leader for AmSouth Bank, working with clients, as "fulfilling, in many cases, their dreams."

"People always think money solves everything," he said. "In many cases, it creates problems."

That sort of challenge has been the focus of Hanna's career for the past 32 years. He joined AmSouth Bank in Tampa as a senior vice president in August. Previously, he worked with private clients for seven years with SunTrust Bank in Tampa.

Hanna heads a trust management team that serves three counties - Hillsborough, Sarasota and Polk. "We serve the needs of people at different kinds of income levels," which can range from $25,000 to $25-million, he said.

Hanna grew up in New York and New Jersey in a banking family. "I wanted to go into commercial lending, which is the line of business my father and my brother have been involved with," he said. But his first position was with a bank that had more openings in the trust department than in commercial loans.

"They directed me to go into management training program on the trust and investment management side," he said. He did, "more or less out of curiosity. (Then) I found I really love that line of business.

"You have the opportunity to help people who are looking for solutions for not just their financial needs but sometimes their family needs as well," he said. "It gives you a chance to help those people meet their needs."

A 1971 graduate of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., Hanna earned a bachelor's degree in prelaw. Instead of pursuing a law degree, he went into banking as a career.

In 1994, he moved to Florida as president and CEO of SouthTrust Bank's trust company. He joined SunTrust Bank in 1996 as executive vice president of private client services. "They were doing a national search and discovered me in the back yard," he said, laughing.

Hanna, 56, is actively involved in civic and nonprofit organizations. He is the immediate past president of the trust, asset management and private banking division of the Florida Bankers Association, and he holds board positions with the Florida Orchestra, the Tampa Museum of Art, the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Ruth Eckerd Hall Foundation, the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay, Junior Achievement of West Florida, the American Cancer Society of Greater Tampa and the Mayor's Beautification Program.

"Fortunately, I'm with an organization that realizes the value of this," he said. "I do find it very rewarding. You build your bank through building your community."

For recreation, Hanna plays golf. And he has played in a lot of foreign destinations.

"One of the most interesting aspects has been (that) my brother, father and I are close and all are involved in golf. We made it a point every other year to go someplace in the world to play golf," he said.

These trips have taken the trio to some of the best golf courses in the United States and abroad, including Australia, England, Scotland and Ireland.

"I like to think of myself as the worst golfer in the world to play the top 20 (courses) in the world," he said, laughing.

One recent golfing-and-travel highlight, Hanna said, was in 2001 when he, his brother and his father, then 86, played the famed St. Andrews course in Scotland for the 10th time. They walked the entire 18 holes, he said.

Now, he said, his goal is to revisit the top 20 courses again "and play them better than I did the last time."

Hanna and his wife live in Tampa. They have five daughters.