David Gratton – Founder & CEO
In 2004, David's company Donat Group initiated an internal research project with the assistance of the National Research Council to explore how social networks can be used to filter and affect reuse of content within large media repositories. This research project was rolled out as the independent company, Project Opus Technologies on March 1st, 2006.
David brings an incredible depth of experience as the founder and CEO of Opus Technologies Inc. Previous to starting Project Opus, his first company, ici Media Inc, developed a Web-enabled product called TODD (Total On Demand Delivery) in 2000. The product was a web-based digital media jukebox incorporating search, browse, tagging, and playlists as primary methods for discovering and consuming media. Ahead of its time, some of TODD's features would not show up in industry juggernaut iTunes until 2002. Totally Hip Software (THP.V), a Vancouver media tools company agreed to purchase ici Media Inc to acquire the TODD technology in August 2001.
Prior to 1999, David Gratton was a successful investment banker for Royal Bank Financial Group and Bayerische Vereinsbank from 1989 - 1999). David is an honours graduate form Canada's prestigious Queen's University.
David left investment banking to pursue his growing interest in digital music technologies, and enrolled at the Vancouver Film School's New Media department. David went on to win a Canadian New Media award within a year of entering the industry.
David presently sits on the boards of eLearning BC and Donat Group Enterprises. He is also an advisor to Mobovivo
John Harley – CTO
John brings over 20 years of product development experience in technology to Project Opus Technologies. Spearheading many commercially successful products from conception to shipment, John has become recognized as a competent and decisive individual in his field. Prior to working with Project Opus Technologies, John held pivotal positions in a number of technology firms and performed contract work for high profile companies, including Adobe.
Loren Davidson – Lead UI and Flash Developer
Loren has 7 years experience in the industry as a Web designer and programmer. He is a highly talented artist with a strong technical bent. Loren balances his design talents with superior technical skills. He is an expert in Javascript, ActionScript, CSS, XHTML. He has played a key role in the development of everything from dynamically-hosted websites to commercial software applications. He also plays a significant role in information architecture and user interface design.
Greg Field – Developer
Greg comes to Donat Group with a Bachelor of Computing Science with a specialization in Software Engineering. His adaptability, problem solving attitude, and constant thirst for knowledge make him a natural fit for the Donat Group team. Greg applies his well developed team-work and organizational abilities to programming creative and robust solutions for Donat clients.
Séamus O'Connor - Technical Direction and Developer
Séamus has extensive experience in all aspects of web development. Before applying his thorough approach and deep expertise to leading-edge projects, he led the development of ACDSee's e-commerce website, and was the lead architect at a Web 2.0 start-up company. A believer in the use of open web standards, he's adept at Java, HTML, CSS, JavaScript and XML.
Jeremy Lim – Marketing Manager
Jeremy Lim leads the promotional front for Project Opus Technologies, performing market research, product and brand development, online promotions, public relations, and customer service. An undying love for music and social networks augment his marketing skill set, allowing him to excel in his arena.
Stephen Abbott – VP Marketing and Brand Development
Stephen Abbott is an expert brand strategist with extensive experience in start-up technology companies. Recognized as a leading innovator on the topic of brands and brand strategies, Stephen's expertise is appreciated across the board, regularly consulting with companies who are in transition and facing new challenges: corporations, start-ups, NFP organizations, and Governments.
During his time as a brand strategist, Stephen has worked on many consumer product, retail and technology brands, including; Mountain Equipment Coop, Future Shop/Best Buy, NGRAIN Technologies, Alphashield, and TechBC.
Prior to working directly on brand development, Stephen worked in advertising and marketing, on both the client and the agency side.
Stephen is also casual musician, having played professionally in the late ‘80s.
Simon Fraser University – Research Partner
Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a leading Canadian university and has extensive experience and success in the commercialization of technologies developed in joint private and public parnerships. The media packaging format that Project Opus is working to establish, via the DYLAN project, is of primary interest to Simon Fraser. As part of the partnership arrangement, they will be looking to apply the results of our research back into the distributed learning field.
SFU - Team
Dr. David Kaufman - David is the research lead for SFU. David is an expert in XML standards and packaging specifications. He has almost 100 published articles and a co-edited book (Distance Education in Canada, 1986) to his credit. David's extensive experience in the both the private and education sectors keeps the research relvant for both academic and business applications.
Baljeet Singh Dhaliwal - Baljeet is a Sun-certified Java programmer with more than 10 years IT experience. He is an expert in XML-related technologies and specifications, and he has over 5 years experience with media packaging research and specifications.
Jason Toal - Jason is a user experiece designer who is currently working on his PHD thesis, "Exploring Social Hardware", a research project in Interactive Arts. His research into the mixed tape culture and its influence on personal publishing, sharing and listening to music make him a valuable asset to the research team.