Equifax CEO to discuss credit markets as part of Wake Forest University’s Babcock Leadership Series & the BB&T Center for the Study of Capitalism
Posted: 11-07-2008 : WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Rick Smith, the chairman and chief executive officer of Equifax Inc., will address “Credit Markets and the Role of Equifax” at 6:15 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 10, in the Annenberg Forum in Carswell Hall on Wake Forest’s Winston-Salem campus.

The lecture is co-sponsored by Wake Forest University’s Babcock Graduate School of Management and Calloway School of Business and Accountancy. The event is free and open to the public.

Equifax is a global leader in information solutions, employment and income verification and human resources business process outsourcing services. Headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., Equifax is a $1.84 billion publicly traded company that employs approximately 7,000 people in 14 countries throughout North America, Latin America and Europe. It is one of the largest sources of consumer and commercial data in the world, and uses advanced analytics and enabling technologies to provide real-time answers to its customers.

Smith joined Equifax in September 2005 after more than two decades with General Electric Co. where he held several chief executive officer, president and chief operating officer positions. In his first year with Equifax, Smith spearheaded a strategic planning process that has defined the company’s growth strategy. The strategy focuses on driving growth through new product innovation, emerging market opportunities, differentiated data and deepening customer relationships.

Smith earned a bachelor’s degree in 1981 from Purdue University. He is on the executive committee of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, and will serve as chairman in 2009. He is also on the board of directors for the Commerce Club, the YMCA of Metropolitan Atlanta, the Atlanta Committee for Progress and is a trustee of the Woodruff Arts Center.

Wake Forest’s Babcock School offers programs across two campuses, with a full-time MBA program in Winston-Salem and evening and weekend MBA programs for working professionals in both Winston-Salem and Charlotte, N.C. Babcock also offers four joint-degree programs – JD/MBA, MD/MBA, PhD/MBA and MSA/MBA – through the university’s schools of Law, Medicine, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Wayne Calloway School of Business and Accountancy, and a 10-month MA in Management program designed specifically for recent college graduates who have majored in liberal arts and sciences and want to learn fundamentals of business and management.

Wake Forest ranks among the world’s best graduate business schools in surveys by Business Week, the Financial Times, Forbes, U.S. News & World Report and The Wall Street Journal. More information is available at www.mba.wfu.edu.