Parisi was born in Santiago de Chile on 25 August 1967. He studied at the Escuela Experimental Salvador Sanfuentes, and completed his secondary studies at the Instituto Nacional. He also briefly studied at Chile's Military Academy. He graduated with a degree in business administration at the University of Chile, and obtained a doctorate in the same subject at the University of Georgia. Parisi served as visiting professor at the Rice University, University of Alabama, University of Georgia, and Georgetown University. In Chile, he was a professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Chile, where he also worked as a vice dean and interim dean in 2010 and was a member of the Group of Monetary Politics. He ran for dean but lost the election to Manuel Agosín. He also worked at the for-profit Andrés Bello National University, where he was appointed dean of the Business Faculty, and, subsequently became the dean of the Chilean Institute for Executive Development, both owned by Laureate International Universities. He resigned the office in July 2012. In the 1990s, Parisi worked as a junior part-time government advisor in different issues. On 10 June 2010 he was appointed councilor of the Chilean Copper Commission by president Sebastián Piñera. He left office on 10 June 2012. During 2011, following a controversy with local retailer La Polar, Parisi made several appearances in Chilean radio and television and his economy phenomena explanations in colloquial terms started to become his trademark. At midyear, Parisi started a TV show called Los Parisi: el poder de la gente, a television program hosted by him and his brother Antonino Parisi. The program was initially broadcast on Vía X, and then in La Red. In March 2012, he advised the leaders of the protests in Aysén.
Presidential candidacy
He announced his presidential pre-candidacy as an independent on 30 January 2012, and called for "independent primaries" against Marco Enríquez-Ominami; however, Enríquez-Ominami declined the proposal. Although some members of the Regionalist Party of the Independents wanted the party to support Parisi, the PRI ended up promoting their own candidate, Ricardo Israel. Members of RN requested their directive board "freedom of action" to support Parisi. In early June 2013, Parisi announced the collection of fifty thousand signatures of people supporting his candidacy, which allowed him to register his candidacy before the Electoral Service of Chile on 7 August 2013.
On 20 October 2013, Alianza presidential candidate Evelyn Matthei Fornet accused Parisi of owing workers of companies he legally represented 100 million pesos. On the next day, Matthei's campaign brigade uploaded to her official site a document containing legal documents involving Parisi, and Matthei herself reiterated the accusations against Parisi, stating that the documents demonstrated he owed up to 500 million pesos, and so Parisi was "ethically disabled to be a candidate for president." Parisi denied Matthei's accusations and announced a complaint against her before a local court. In June 2016 a 19 years old Texas Tech University student accused Parisi of continuous sexual arrassement during a study trip to Chile organized by him. Parisi was a visiting professor appointed by the then dean and friend Dr. Lance Nail. In an unrelated case, he was previously accused of making drinks for a female staff member at the university during work hours and then left her unattended when she became intoxicated and passed out and abandoning her in a life-threatening condition. Parisi was fired from Texas Tech University and the University of Alabama.
