About ORDSN

The Oregon Digital Safety Net is a concept under development by a small, part time team.  We are grateful for the support of the Technology Association of Oregon, who has enthusiastically championed our concept and introduced it to many key players in the Oregon Community.

We believe that Evergreen Communications are a key tool to enable Oregonians who have been digitally excluded to be included in our modern economy.  EVERGREEN Communications can be a part of many other programs - existing and new - and can be thought of as an accelerant in making those programs successful.

We are currently looking for funding for a small Stage One Pilot, and have plans to expand that to a larger pilot and eventually to a statewide launch.  We have received some funds from a major technology supporter.   We believe that the eventual funding model will be from a mix of foundation grants and state welfare benefits; but we believe we need to conduct the pilots first in order to prove the viability of the concept.  

We have detailed plans available to discuss with potential donors.  We are also looking for major service agencies who are interested in being participants in pilots.  Please contact Sarah Koski if you are interested.

Our Team

Carol Coye Benson - Co Founder 

Carol is a digital world enthusiast who is currently thinking about ways to use available technologies to improve the lives of marginalized populations in her home state of Oregon. Prior to her retirement in 2020, Carol was a global payments industry strategy consultant with experience in the business, operations, risk, and technical aspects of the industry. She was a founder of the firm Glenbrook Partners and is the author of the books “Payments Systems in the U.S.” and “Global Payments”.

carol@ordsn.org

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolcoyebenson/

Siva Narendra - Co Founder

Siva is CEO of tyfone, Inc., a digital banking technology company in Portland, Oregon, he co-founded in 2004. Dr. Narendra has served as its CEO since 2011. Dr. Narendra is an inventor with more than 100 patents. Inventions he patented have led to the launch of OneIDLab, a digital security company and iCashe, a digital payment fintech.

siva@ordsn.org

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivanarendra/

Nick Benson  -  Marketing Advisor

Nick has provided advice and direction on the development of the EVERGREEN brand and strategy.  In his day job, Nick works on VMware's corporate brand marketing team.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickbenson2023/

We are grateful for strategic advice and support from many other people, including Skip Newberry, Tim Winner and their team at the Technology Association of Oregon, Elisabeth Richard, Sarah Koski, and Stephen Brooks and Jonathan Harms at the Charitable Partnership Fund.