History

The Economic Empowerment Initiative (EEI, Inc.) was started in 2001 by economist and philanthropist Samuel T. Jackson to help high school and college students manage their financial resources and create wealth. Realizing that the key to empowering others was training, incentives, and public support, Mr. Jackson began hosting free financial empowerment events to both public and private school students. Only a couple years later, he gathered a team of former college students and community developers to strengthen his cause and establish a headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. With the vision of creating smarter consumers, employees, and entrepreneurs, EEI sought to create relationships that could impact communities, corporations, and schools. The organization grew to serve hundreds after only a few short years, providing trainings like “How to Buy a Car”, “What to do about Credit Cards”, and “Paying of School Loans”, not to mention the infamous CEO Roundtable (now an Annual Financial Empowerment Summit).