After completing his studies in Michigan, in 1944 Vinelli was hired by the
Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, D.C. He was an economist in the Division of Research and Statistics, International Section. He wrote several papers while there, including
New Taxation Trends in Latin America. In 1946, he served six months in the
U.S. Army. He was released from service as
World War II wound down and the need for soldiers was greatly reduced. From 1946 to 1948, he worked as a Trust Investment Advisor and later a Security Analyst at
American Security & Trust Company in Washington, D.C. Vinelli joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as an economist in 1948. In 1949, Honduran president
Juan Manuel Gálvez asked the IMF to assist his government with writing new banking and tax legislation and the parameters for establishing a
Central Bank and a
National Bank for Agricultural Development. The purpose of these banks was to regulate the exchange policy, monetary policy and credit policy of Honduras. Vinelli was the lead economist on that mission and worked with members of the Honduran Ministry of Finance in drafting the legislation. The
National Congress of Honduras approved the legislation in February 1950, and soon afterwards the IMF moved Vinelli and his family to
Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Vinelli worked with a Honduran commission appointed by Gálvez, an advisor from the
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and bankers from Guatemala and El Salvador. The team, led by Vinelli, created the two banks in three months; they opened for business in July 1950. Inaugurating a Central Bank was a major step in the monetary area for Honduras: until 1950,
lempiras and dollars were interchangeable as currency, and lempiras were issued by two private banks. After July 1, 1950, The Central Bank became the only issuer of the lempira. This monetary sovereignty resulted in the
government of Honduras having what economists call
seigniorage, the profits from which allowed the Central Bank later to finance operations of the Honduran government. where Vinelli taught from its inauguration and for twenty-five years thereafter. In October 1956, Lozano was
overthrown by a military junta. At the time, one of Vinelli's responsibilities was to manage the budget of the country. He had a disagreement with the new military leadership over expenses and they exiled him. He moved to the United States for several months. In 1957 he returned to Honduras. By the end of that year he joined Banco Atlántida, one of the largest private banks in the country, as Assistant to the chief executive officer (CEO). He remained with the bank for forty years. From 1978 to 1995 he was CEO and chairman of the board, and then remained chairman of the board from 1995 until his death at age 74 in 1997. Vinelli had a transformative effect on Banco Atlántida and on banking in Honduras in general. Inside Banco Atlántida, he created generous retirement and health plans for employees. He and
David Rockefeller, chief executive officer of Chase, developed a good working relationship during the decade that Chase had majority ownership in Banco Atlántida. Chase introduced new banking systems that made Banco Atlántida the most modern bank in Honduras, and other local banks followed its model. Under Vinelli's leadership Banco Atlántida became the largest bank in Honduras, both in assets and in number of bank branches. In the 1960s and 1970s Vinelli led a horizontal diversification of Banco Atlántida into a group that invested in multiple financial services, such as insurance (Seguros Atlántida) and information technology. The diversified model was later imitated by other major banks in Honduras. Cartonera Nacional, Convertidora Nacional de Papél y Cartón (paper/cardboard), Lotificadora San Fernando, Lotificadora Industrial, Rancho El Coco (real estate). ==Personal life==