Professional Diversity Network, Inc. Announces New Federal Partnership

CHICAGO, July 13, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Professional Diversity Network, Inc. (“PDN”) (NASDAQ:IPDN), which operates America’s premiere network for professional women, through its www.napw.com platform, and provides access to employment opportunities for diverse professionals through its www.prodivnet.com platform and affiliated sites, announced today that it has formed a new partnership with the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (“BFS”), a branch of the Department of Treasury.

HIGHLIGHTS:

• PDN has partnered with BFS to help enhance federal workforce diversity
• BFS joins growing ranks of PDN’s federal agency partners
• Federal agency attention to employment diversity reflects growing trend
  
  

The Company announced today a new partnership with BFS, an agency formed in 2012 to help streamline the federal government’s financial services operations across most agencies.  BFS now joins PDN’s growing ranks of federal agency partners, including the Transportation Security Administration (“TSA”), Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), National Institutes of Health (“NIH”), Consumer Fraud Protection Board (“CFPB”) and Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”).

Jim Kirsch, Executive Chair of the Company’s Board of Directors, noted that the new partnership with BFS continues PDN’s focus on federal government contracts. “Part of our strategic plan includes partnering with federal agencies in their efforts to enhance diversity within the federal workforce.  The federal government has long been on the leading edge of diversity in employment – enacting, enforcing and following the laws which support a more diverse workforce – and our federal partnerships not only help to solidify our brand within the marketplace but actually help to stimulate demand for our services in both the public and private sectors.  From a brand perspective, we believe that partnerships like ours with BFS demonstrate to other employers that we are well-positioned to supply them with diverse candidates.”

“As the public face of PDN, I am in this market every day, where I see the demand for diversity Jim mentioned,” said Star Jones, the Company’s President.  She continued, “This demand is reflected everywhere from our daily news to the cover of this month’s Harvard Business Review, which dedicated its issue to the topic of workplace diversity.  Our new partnership with BFS is particularly exciting because of the type of candidates BFS seeks, which include candidates in critical areas such as accounting, business and finance, and IT.  These are all traditionally under-served areas in terms of diversity.  I am beyond proud to be part of this Company, which, I believe, has created the partnerships and infrastructure to supply the demand for these critical BFS employees as well as from other organizations in both the public and private sectors.”

About Professional Diversity Network, Inc.

Professional Diversity Network, Inc. (PDN) is an Internet software and services company that develops and operates online professional networking communities dedicated to serving diverse professionals in the United States and employers seeking to hire diverse talent. Through an online platform and our relationship recruitment affinity groups, we provide our employer clients a means to identify and acquire diverse talent and assist them with their efforts to comply with the Equal Employment Opportunity Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program. Our subsidiary, National Association of Professional Women (NAPW), is one of the largest, most recognized networking organizations of professional women in the country, spanning more than 200 industries and professions.

Our mission is to utilize the collective strength of our affiliate companies, members, partners and unique proprietary platform to be the standard in business diversity recruiting, networking and professional development.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements regarding the future based on our current expectations, forecasts, beliefs, intentions, strategies and assumptions. Forward-looking statements can be identified by forward-looking words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should," and "would" or similar words. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and our actual results may differ materially from those stated or implied in such forward-looking statements. Factors that could contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: failure to realize synergies and other financial benefits from mergers and acquisitions within expected time frames, including increases in expected costs or difficulties related to integration of merger and acquisition partners; inability to identify and successfully negotiate and complete additional combinations with potential merger or acquisition partners or to successfully integrate such businesses, including our ability to realize the benefits and cost savings from, and limit any unexpected liabilities acquired as a result of, any such business combinations; our limited operating history in a new and unproven market; increasing competition in the market for online professional networks; our ability to comply with increasing governmental regulation and other legal obligations related to privacy; our ability to adapt to changing technologies and social trends and preferences; our ability to attract and retain a sales and marketing team, management and other key personnel and the ability of that team to execute on the Company’s business strategies and plans; our ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for our intellectual property; any future litigation regarding our business, including intellectual property claims; and the risk factors disclosed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on March 30, 2016 and any subsequent filings made by us with the SEC. Forward-looking statements in this release are based on information available to us as of the date hereof and we assume no obligation to update the information included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 30, 2016, together with this press release are available on our website, www.prodivnet.com.

CONTACT: Professional Diversity Network, Inc.
James Kirsch, ECB
jkirsch@prodivnet.com

Released July 13, 2016