Biography

In June 2011, Bill Cummins was named Executive State Director of the Alabama Small Business Development Center Network, a public sector service organization devoted to supporting Alabama small business. Bill is a thirty-year veteran of commercial banking and joined Bank One/New Orleans in 1998 as the Market Manager -- Trade Finance for Louisiana. In 2000, he was promoted to first vice president for Global Treasury & Trade (Southeastern Market Manager). In 2004, Bank One merged with JP Morgan Chase, and Bill served as Executive Director for Global Trade Services for JPMorgan Chase Bank.

From 1996-1998, Bill was Senior Vice President and Director of the AmTrade International Bank in Atlanta; from 1982 to 1995, he was group vice president for trade finance with South Trust Bank in Birmingham.

Bill is a former member of the Bankers’ Association on Foreign Trade and co-founded its Small Business Export Finance Committee. He has served as an expert witness regarding trade finance before several congressional committees and is a frequent lecturer for trade groups, financial institutions and universities. Bill is a published author on trade finance with articles appearing is such periodicals as The Exporter, RMA Guide to Commercial Lending, Export Today. He is a member and former Vice Chair of the Louisiana District Export Council – LADEC and former Chairman of the Alabama District Export Council, 1994-96 (and its Vice Chairman from 2014 to present). For many years, Bill served on the faculty of the LSU Graduate School of Banking; he is a former adjunct professor with Birmingham-Southern University. Bill served on the Board of Visitors for the College of Business at Loyola University and was the 2001-2002 Chair of the International Trade & Tourism Council of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI); in January of 2005, Bill was elected to the Board of Directors of LABI. In 2000, he was elected to the Board of the World Trade Center of New Orleans. From 2017 to 2020, Bill served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of District Export Councils and from 2019 to 2020, he served on the Advisory Committee of the Export-Import Bank, and from 2022 to 2023, he served on Ex-Im’s Council for Small Business.

In 1994, Bill was voted in the top ten International Bankers in the USA by International Business magazine and, in 1993, he was recognized by Alabama’s SBA with an award for his contributions to small business exporting. In March of 2022, Bill was recognized as the recipient of the Governor’s Export Advocacy Award by Alabama Governor Kay Ivey.