James Swinderman

James Swinderman is a Business Advisor with Transworld Business Advisors, serving founder-led companies across Northeast Ohio. He came up through operations before stepping into an advisory role, and that sequence defines how he works. He has run the floor, carried the P&L, and sat in the same chair the owners across his table occupy today. His operating experience ranges from sole proprietorships to family establishments, to multimillion-dollar publicly traded multinationals, which means he speaks the language of the corner shop and the boardroom with equal ease. Jim brings nearly thirty years of profit-and-loss leadership across specialty manufacturing, precision machining, metals fabrication, and industrial services. His career was built on operational results rather than theory: margins expanded, on-time delivery rebuilt from the high forties to the mid nineties, and throughput nearly tripled. He has also sat on the principal side of the deal, negotiating the sale of a specialty chassis manufacturer and leading two separate acquisition integrations from inside the business rather than across the table from it. He understands what makes a business valuable because he spent three decades creating that value from the inside. That perspective serves owners at every scale. Jim works with Main Street business owners ready to sell the company they built, and with founders of lower-middle-market industrial firms weighing a more complex transition. Both want the same three things: a straight read on what their business is worth, an advisor who knows how to represent that business in the marketplace, and a transaction that holds through diligence to a clean close. Jim reads a business the way its owner does, which lets him position it honestly, price it credibly, and carry the deal to the finish. Jim holds an MBA, with a specialization in Finance, and a BA in Public Relations and Marketing. The two disciplines frame his practice: one grounds the numbers behind every valuation and deal structure, the other shapes how a business is presented to the market and the right buyer is found. He also holds a Six Sigma Black Belt and serves as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors for a local, federally chartered credit union serving more than 49,000 members and managing in excess of $460 million in assets. Jim has deep roots in the Ohio industrial community and knows the operators, the shops, and the deals that move within it.

Vince Liuzzi, CBI, is President and Managing Director of Transworld Business Advisors of Cleveland Metro | Akron | Canton, where he guides business owners, founders, and CEOs through sales, acquisitions, mergers, and exit planning. With more than 30 years in commercial banking and financial services, he brings institutional rigor and hands-on deal experience to middle-market and main-street M&A. A Certified Business Intermediary and licensed commercial real estate agent, Vince structures and closes complex transactions — SBA financing, seller notes, earn-outs, recapitalizations, and real estate-inclusive deals. His background leading large bank region mergers across the U.S. gives him deep expertise in valuation, due diligence, risk management, and ownership transitions. He works closely with attorneys, CPAs, lenders, and private buyers to keep deals on track and drive successful outcomes across changing economic cycles.