Don has a unique educational background. It was traditional schooling in Canada through to university, including a brief stint at law school. That was followed by multiple years of international travel, teaching and working in foreign cultures. Call it his University of Worldly Adventure, including some misadventure.

Back in Canada, Don’s first contact center experience was working for serial entrepreneur Greig Clark, founder of College Pro Painters. Don graduated from running that business’s phone sales function to co-founding his own outsource contact center.

In 1992, Optima Communications International was created with Don as sole owner. Optima’s first big client was Time Life Inc. Since then, Optima has purposely evolved to handle more than just sales for its clients. It seeks the optimum balance between sales quantity and customer experience quality.

This has resulted in Optima’s current focus on regulated and technically complex industries. The stories of Optima’s first insurance and utility clients sound like serendipity. Don will tell you that the closer Optima gets to that optimum quantity/quality balance, the luckier it will be.