James Parrino

Jim is a Managing Director with and co-leads Fifth Third’s Buy-Side M&A Advisory group, a part of Fifth Third Securities, Inc. (“FTS”). Prior to joining Fifth Third, he was Co-Founder and Managing Director of Praxis Partners LLC, a financial advisory firm focused on providing mergers and acquisitions advisory services to middle market companies, and management advisory services and custom executive education programs for financial institutions and large corporations. Prior to founding Praxis Partners and its predecessor company, he was a Director at Topwalk Associates, a boutique advisory firm for financial institutions, and a Manager at Ernst and Young, where he served in both audit and consulting engagements. Jim is also the Richardson Faculty Fellow professor at the University of Florida where he currently teaches Mergers & Acquisitions and Private Equity/Venture Capital in the graduate degree programs. He has also served as a professor of finance at Babson College, teaching courses on investment banking, enterprise valuation, and corporate financial analysis in the MBA program. Jim received his Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from George Washington University, and his Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting from the University of Florida. He is also a Certified Public Accountant.