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ATLANTA, Nov. 18, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- As a part of Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX) continued commitment to the Atlanta community, the company announced today the sponsorship of the Kingonomics program, which begins today, Wednesday, November 18, through Saturday, November 21 in Atlanta.

Based on Kingonomics, a book by Rodney Sampson, who was inspired by the economic ideals of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the event will provide teenagers living in the Atlanta Westside community with the opportunity to learn from industry experts, expand their horizons, and give them a jump on shaping their futures.  

"Given today's economic climate, it is imperative that we create a platform for the development of a sustainable infrastructure in education with access to capital as well as foster innovation and entrepreneurship," said Rodney Sampson, who along with an advisory board is leading the charge on reshaping the futures of Atlanta's youth. "Only then can we close the wealth gap and create equity and parity for all."

To kick-off Kingonomics on Wednesday, Westside teens will participate in #StartupHigh, which is a high-impact assembly where an entourage of entrepreneurs, coders and influencers will visit five Atlanta Public High Schools to discuss careers and opportunities in the technology industry. From there, Westside stakeholders and teens will tour Georgia Tech's Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), AT&T Foundry Innovation Lab, Pindrop, and the all new TechSquare Labs. Attendees will end the first day with an Influencer Ecosystem Mapping Session and reception, where they will plot Atlanta's ecosystem's strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. They will also discuss how all Atlanta communities can better access these opportunities.

"It's important to us at Equifax to educate young adults about their futures as well as how to build long-term prosperity and maintain financial health," said Assad Lazarus, Senior Vice President, Product and Customer Experience at Equifax Personal Information Solutions. "Along with other corporate partners and non-profit organizations, we are proud to continue making great strides in Atlanta's Westside."

During the final day of the program, teens will participate in panel discussions with influential entrepreneurs and investors, like Dr. Paul Judge, co-founder of Pindrop, Luma, Monsieur, and a new $25-million-dollar venture fund housed at TechSquare Labs, during the Startup Lounge. Later, participating teens will learn to think, create, and build like a billionaire by learning the basics of coding during the Idea Hackathon and Pioneer Pitch Competition. Teens will also have the option to participate in the Kids Drone Zone, exposing students to the innovative, robotic hardware that will impact nearly every area of their lives in the coming years. At the conclusion of the two-day event, all are invited to a skate party at the legendary Cascade Family Skating.

"Financial education, access to high growth-skills like coding and access to early stage capital are major issues for Atlanta's Westside community, which all contributes to the wealth gap in America," said Sampson. "We make progress towards closing the wealth gap when we have companies like Equifax that take notice and lend their support."

To learn more about Kingonomics, visit http://www.kingonomics.com.

About Equifax

Equifax is a global leader in consumer, commercial and workforce information solutions that provides businesses of all sizes and consumers with insight and information they can trust. Equifax organizes and assimilates data on more than 600 million consumers and 81 million businesses worldwide.  The company's significant investments in differentiated data, its expertise in advanced analytics to explore and develop new multi-source data solutions, and its leading-edge proprietary technology enables it to create and deliver unparalleled customized insights that enrich both the performance of businesses and the lives of consumers.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Equifax operates or has investments in 19 countries and is a member of Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500® Index.  Its common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol EFX. In 2014, Equifax was nominated as a Bloomberg BusinessWeek Top 50 company; its CIO was listed as one of the top 100 by CIO magazine; and the company was named to the Fintech 100 list, was recognized as a top 20 company to work for by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and was named a 2014 InformationWeek Elite 100 Winner. For more information, please visit www.equifax.com.

About Equifax

Equifax is a global leader in consumer, commercial and workforce information solutions that provide businesses of all sizes and consumers with insight and information they can trust. Equifax organizes and assimilates data on more than 600 million consumers and 81 million businesses worldwide.  The company's significant investments in differentiated data, its expertise in advanced analytics to explore and develop new multi-source data solutions, and its leading-edge proprietary technology enable it to create and deliver unparalleled customized insights that enrich both the performance of businesses and the lives of consumers.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Equifax operates or has investments in 19 countries and is a member of Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500® Index.  Its common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol EFX. In 2015, Forbes named Equifax one of the World's 100 Most Innovative companies; Bloomberg BusinessWeek nominated it as one of its Top 50 companies; its CIO was named one of the top 100 by CIO magazine; the company ranked 13^th in the Fintech 100 list; and it was recognized as a top 20 company to work for by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and was named a 2015 InformationWeek Elite 100 Winner. For more information, please visit www.equifax.com.

About Kingonomics

Kingonomics is the definitive social impact platform designed to address poverty and the wealth gap via the efficient use of existing and new knowledge and best practices for innovation, entrepreneurship and investment.

This is accomplished by creating an efficient ecosystem of interconnected experts, firms, research centres, universities, thought leaders, economists, incubators, entrepreneurs, investors and advisors that are presented via Kingonomics large scale conferences, intensive trainings, learning programs, courses, curriculum and certification.

With programming focused on "learning to code and hack", "bootstrapping startups", "becoming fundable", "creating a new capital markets via crowdfunding" and "training the next generation of angel investors", attendees learn the innovative, entrepreneurial and investment ecosystems while simultaneously getting the opportunity to interact and network with over vetted experts and mentors. Over 2,000 diverse fellow entrepreneurs and over 100 accredited investors, angels and venture capitalists attend Kingonomics experiences each year.

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SOURCE Equifax Inc.