About us

Founded in 2006 and proudly still led by its original founders—Janet Hawkins, Ian Long, and Rick Peters—Opterus has become a trusted partner to over 65 global retailers operating across 49 countries and in 26 languages. With more than 59,400 active retail locations, 440,000 daily users, and over one million communications completed every day, Opterus empowers retailers of all sizes—from regional chains to global enterprises with thousands of locations.

Purpose-built for the retail industry, OPSCENTER delivers secure, centralized communication and flawless store execution—without the complexity of software installations or reliance on email and third-party tools. Its flexible architecture reduces IT overhead, making it ideal for organizations with limited technical resources. Recent platform enhancements have introduced greater scalability, deeper integrations, advanced AI capabilities, and seamless deployment across Microsoft Teams, POS systems, mobile, and desktop environments.

At Opterus, trust and partnership are at the heart of everything we do. We are committed to delivering exactly what we promise—putting our clients first and building strong, long-term relationships founded on collaboration and mutual respect. Our product roadmap is shaped by the voices of our clients, ensuring every innovation meets real retail needs.

We see our clients not just as partners, but as part of the Opterus family. Together, we foster a culture of empathy, support, and shared success—empowering our employees, our clients, and our communities to thrive and make retail a better place for everyone. 

Our Story

Opterus was born out of friendship, vision, and a shared belief that work should be meaningful and enjoyable. Three colleagues—Ian Long, Rick Peters, and Janet Hawkins—set out to build not just a company, but a place where people loved what they did and the impact they made.

Each brought a unique strength to the table: Ian’s exceptional technical expertise, Rick’s deep retail and product knowledge, and Janet’s organizational and business acumen. Together, they had the perfect blend of skills—and the determination—to create something extraordinary.

Back in 2006, retail technology looked very different. Point-of-sale systems dominated store operations, while areas like communication, task management, and execution were largely overlooked. Many retailers still relied on mail bags, faxes, and early email to connect with stores, and internet access wasn’t even standard across all locations.

The Opterus founders saw a clear opportunity to change that. They envisioned a centralized, easy-to-use solution that could serve as a single source of truth for retail operations—a platform that gave retailers a 360-degree view of what was happening across their stores and streamlined how communication and execution were managed.

They were first to market with this kind of solution—offered entirely as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) at a time when many companies still insisted on hosting their own systems. It was a bold move, but one grounded in foresight: the team knew SaaS was the future, and history proved them right.

From the beginning, Opterus has stayed true to its founding principles: build best-in-class solutions, make them simple to implement, remove barriers to adoption, and always deliver measurable value to clients.

But beyond the technology, Opterus was built on relationships. The company’s philosophy centers on partnership, collaboration, and trust. Clients aren’t just customers—they become part of the Opterus family. The team continues to work closely with them long after implementation, listening, learning, and evolving the product based on their real-world needs.

That dedication has paid off. Nearly 15 years later, Opterus still proudly serves its very first client, and its passionate team continues to grow, innovate, and love what they do.

Opterus isn’t just a software company. It’s a story of friendship, innovation, and commitment—to clients, to people, and to making retail better for everyone.

The Leadership Team

Our mission is to build long lasting partnerships with our clients by delivering an efficient, cost-effective solution for store information and execution management. We empower retailers to enhance productivity, streamline operations, and strengthen communication across the enterprise—all through a solution that is easy to access, simple to implement, and adaptable to any retail environment.

Janet Hawkins

Founder and president

Janet has more than 25+ years of experience in the Retail market working for industry leaders such as NCR, Triversity and SAP. She has held a wide variety of positions with areas of responsibility including global strategic business partner relationships, third party technology partners, clients and resellers, business development, and project management. This has contributed to her strong relationship management, leadership and team building skills.

Ian Long

Founder and Chief Software Architect

Ian has over 30+ years experience as a Software Architect, Developer and Team Leader successfully developing and delivering large-scale software systems in a wide-range of industries. Previously, he was a Software Architect at startup Route1, a provider of security and identity management where he was responsible for the design and implementation of the Route1 MobiKey. He was also involved with the design and development of the MobiNET, a communications and service delivery platform. At netMedia Technologies, another startup, he was responsible for the team that designed and implemented Purolink, the Purolator desktop shipping software used to ship over 5 million packages worldwide. He has also been an integral part of the development teams for Embarcadero Technologies' DBArtisan and RapidSQL, as well as Delrina's (now Symantec's) Winfax Pro.

Rick Peters

Founder and Chief Product Officer

Rick has 25+ plus years of experience designing, delivering and supporting retail applications to several high and mid tier retailers around the world. Previously at SAP, Rick held Product Management responsibility for the SAP next generation Java POS solution including original product creation to customer implementations. At Triversity Inc. he held several positions including Project Management, Training and Product Management of Triversity's flagship product. Before his career in retail software began, he had several years of direct experience managing and working in retail stores.

Gary Stonell

Senior Vice President of Sales & Operations

Gary has 30+ years of sales management and business development experience in CPG and SaaS. Beginning his career in CPG, he worked for Kraft Foods, Philips Electronics, then SunRype Products fostering partnerships with retailers and managing various aspects of the sales and marketing processes. More recently at Sysomos/Meltwater, a SaaS based Social Media content management platform, Gary led the Enterprise sales team responsible for managing existing clients and new logo acquisition. The key to his success has been a meaningful focus on building business relationships with collaborative solution based partnerships.

John Denham

Chief Financial Officer

John has over 35+ years experience in a financial and operating role. He previously held the position of Chief Financial Officer of Route1 Inc., a Canadian public company listed on the TSX-V. During his time at the technology start-up, the company became a public company and raised approximately $20 million in start up capital. Prior to this he was at CIBC World Markets where he assisted over 250 small to mid-sized businesses in raising growth and operating capital and in completing mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. John is a Professional Engineer and Chartered Financial Analyst.

Spotlight on Excellence

Hear It Straight from Our Team


Discover why our employees love working at Opterus! In these short videos, you’ll get an inside look at what makes our culture special and how our passion translates into exceptional solutions for our clients.

Real stories. Real people. Real impact.

Bruce McLaren | Software & Web Developer

Craig Brownridge | Vice President, Solution Consulting

Yohan Mohammed | Sr. Director, Customer Success & Support

Jamie Goodfellow | Senior Software Developer

Gary Stonell | SVP Sales & Operations 

Hung Tran | Senior Software Developer

Our partners

HOT OFF THE PRESS

We’re thrilled to share that Opterus has been recognized by Retail Tech Insights as the Top Retail Task Management Solution in Canada for 2025!


The feature highlights how our flagship platform, OPSCENTER, helps retailers simplify store communications and task execution — reducing costs, improving visibility, and empowering teams around the world.

A huge thank-you to our incredible clients and partners for helping us reach this milestone.

And congratulations to the entire Opterus team for continuing to innovate and support retailers globally!

Click here to read the full interview!

SCHOLARSHIPS - OPTERUS REBEL WITH A CAUSE AWARDS

Valerie Ann sitting on Helen Rose's lap.

The Opterus Rebel with a Cause Awards Scholarship program consists of two scholarships, awarding $5,000 each to two students pursuing an education in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and the arts at an accredited Canadian university or college, who create or continue a new mindset for a better world. The scholarship selection board, comprised of Opterus leaders and other Canadian thought leaders, in partnership with Scholarships Canada, selects finalists based on creativity and impact. It seeks those looking to change their community in a realistic, focused and rebellious way.

The awards are inspired by Founder, Janet Hawkins’ mother, Dr. Helen McKilligin, and sister, Valerie Ann Hawkins.

Learn more about rebel with a cause