Charles Jennings, CEO of Swan Island Networks, Wins Prestigious Oregon Entrepreneur Foundation Award.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Individual Achievement Award Recognizes Jennings' leadership at Swan Island and Chairmanship of RAINS

Swan Island Networks, Inc., a software and services company at the forefront of designing advanced information sharing systems, today announced that its Chief Executive Officer, Charles Jennings, has been presented with the prestigious Individual Achievement Award from the Oregon Entrepreneurs Foundation (OEF), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving opportunities for entrepreneurs and emerging, growth-oriented companies in the Pacific Northwest. Finalists for the annual OEF awards were chosen from more than 50 nominees throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington, and Swan Island Networks itself was a finalist in the "working capital company" category.

"Charles has made so many contributions to our industry, community and country and yet he is the type of individual who would never seek an award or the limelight for doing so," said Ken Greger, Principal at Greger Peterson Associates. "He has spent most of his life building companies and organizations that are truly focused on helping others. Knowing how he has contributed, I felt compelled to nominate him for the Individual Achievement Award."

As founder and CEO of Swan Island Networks, Jennings is driving the company to the forefront of trusted information sharing, dramatically improving homeland security and emergency response by connecting organizations for the communication and dissemination of sensitive, confidential or highly targeted information. Conceived as a response to the September 11th terrorist attacks, Swan Island was one of the few high tech companies founded in Oregon -- or anywhere -- in 2002. The company is in the midst of its third Department of Defense contract, and delivers the core technology for numerous national information sharing initiatives.

A History of Founding Nonprofit Industry Groups

Jennings is also well known for starting nonprofit organizations. The standouts on this list include TRUSTe, the independent, nonprofit privacy organization widely acknowledged as the leader in promoting privacy assurance on the Internet, and RAINS (Regional Alliances for Infrastructure and Network Security), an organization dedicated to accelerating development and deployment of innovative technology for homeland security.

RAINS has achieved significant national attention for its unique ability to connect organizations at the Federal, state and local level in order to improve disaster preparedness and response. As part of these efforts, the public/private coalition of high technology companies, research universities, public institutions and first responders has created and delivered a working, multi-vendor solution (Connect & Protect) to connect 9-1-1 centers with critical infrastructure providers and other public safety stakeholders. The Connect & Protect program in Portland is one of five finalists for the first annual Mitretek Innovations Award in Homeland Security, to be given by Mitretek Systems and the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard.

"It was a thrill to win this award -- especially in front of a thousand local business leaders at Oregon's premier entrepreneurial event of the year. I look on it as significant recognition for what our great team at Swan Island Networks has been able to accomplish."

An entrepreneur in the truest sense of the term, Jennings has written six books on topics ranging from gardening to computer security. He has also produced or co-produced five films, including the Emmy-winning Shooter for Paramount Pictures. In addition, he has written for newspapers and magazines throughout the U.S., and helped create the comic strip, Pluggers, with three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jeff MacNelly. His sixth book, The Hundredth Window: Protecting Your Privacy and Security in the Age of the Internet (Simon & Shuster), has been translated into four languages.

Prior to founding Swan Island Networks, Jennings founded numerous technology-based businesses, including Portland Software, a company that merged with Preview Software to form Preview Systems, and GeoTrust, the world's second leading company in certificate servers and SSL technology.

Jennings is also a speaker at top conferences regionally and worldwide. He recently appeared at the annual conference for the National Security Agency's Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS). In 1999, he was a keynote speaker at the United Nations 50th Anniversary Conference on Human Rights in Toulouse, France. In 1996, he spoke at the Rand Corporation's Security in Cyberspace conference. He is a Trustee Emeritus on the Board of Trustees of The Northwest Academy, a private Portland, Oregon school, and served four years as Chair.

About Swan Island Networks

Swan Island Networks, Inc., is a three-year-old company led by a seasoned management team whose previous experience includes founding and managing a number of highly successful Internet security companies. The company's business is trusted information sharing: connecting organizations to each other when confidential, sensitive or highly targeted information needs to be exchanged. www.swanisland.net.