As Closed Loop CEO and founder, Lance helps organizations leverage user experience to maximize strategic advantage—especially finding the little UX details with the biggest impact. His work is guided by a few simple beliefs: Good user experience is good business. There’s always room for improvement. And companies that value design, UX, and the human element will outperform those that live and die only by the numbers.

With Sandra Niehaus, Lance cowrote the breakout business strategy book Web Design for ROI . His educational background includes an exploratory tour of law school, preceded by a BS in Managerial Economics from UC Davis.

Lance, his wife Courtney, and their three children live in Northern California, where he enjoys reading and cycling. Luckily, he has zero plans to abandon Closed Loop in hopes of winning the Tour de France.

As creative director and VP of user experience, Sandra heads Closed Loop’s user research and user experience divisions. She’s an accomplished writer, speaker and presenter who addresses usability, design, and conversion at numerous industry and business conferences.

With Lance Loveday, Sandra cowrote Web Design for ROI, which links design and business strategy.

Sandra’s creative, scientifically inclined family fostered her early fascination with technology and the arts. After discovering computer programming in high school, she balanced college courses in computer science and electronics with orchestra, music theory, and composition. Her studies next took her to France, Hungary, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she earned a master’s degree in composition. In her copious free time, she complemented these studies with graduate courses in business law, IT management, and multiple web development languages.

Sandra joined Closed Loop in 2004 after nearly a decade as an independent web consultant. She lives in Northern California, where she surfs, writes, practices mixed martial arts, and thinks about stuff.

As chief strategy officer at Closed Loop, John is responsible for leading complex client engagements and development of Closed Loop’s service lines.

John has more than 15 years of experience leading the design, development, and optimization of websites and web applications. At Closed Loop, he uses his background in strategy and implementation, his interest in product and service design, and his drive to simply make things better to help clients realize dramatic improvements in their online results.

Before joining Closed Loop, John worked in house and as a consultant at both private and public-sector organizations. He holds a MBA from the University of Notre Dame.

Outside the office, John spends nearly all his time keeping up with his wife and three children. However, he does find some time to run, cycle, travel, and listen to live music.

Amy synthesizes the contributions of Closed Loop’s design, UX, creative, and strategy teams, creating comprehensive plans for improving the user experience, usability, and conversion rates of large- and enterprise-level websites. She enjoys “going native” on large-scale projects, becoming a de facto member of our clients’ internal marketing, web development, and creative teams.

Amy has eight years of experience in online marketing and more than 10 years of experience in project management. She holds a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and communication from the University of Michigan-Dearborn and a master’s degree in communication from Eastern Michigan University.

After completing her education in 2006, Amy heeded the call of the West and moved to California to join Closed Loop. In 2009 she decamped to Wales, where her husband wrote his PhD thesis and she worked remotely on a California schedule. In 2012, the duo returned to the US bearing a Welsh cat and 630 pounds of books.

As director of search engine marketing at Closed Loop, Amy brings extensive expertise in paid search with over 8 years experience in the industry. She has successfully managed campaigns for both B2B and B2C clients across a wide variety of industries, and has a consistent track record for building SEM campaigns that exceed client business and ROI goals. She is certified as a Google Advertising Professional and has spoken at top industry conferences including Search Marketing Expo and Web Design World, as well as taught SEM tactics at the collegiate level.

Before entering the marketing world, Amy worked as a teacher—which explains her ability to explain new information in a manner that is both understandable and relevant to a client’s industry. At Closed Loop, she develops and executes marketing strategies that maximize ROI while helping clients feel confident in their search campaigns.

Amy grew up in Indiana and attended Indiana University. She now lives in Phoenix, Arizona with her husband and son. When not managing search engine campaigns, Amy enjoys hiking and exploring new places with her family.

As director of landing experience optimization at Closed Loop, Sara develops strategies designed to increase conversion by leveraging the power of the entire UX ecosystem. She combines expertise in strategy, project management, and conversion optimization with a passion for well-crafted, intuitive user experiences.

Sara joined the Closed Loop team in 2009 after she busted into our office, résumé in hand, asking where her desk was. When she’s not geeking out behind her Mac, she enjoys science fiction and traipsing around the globe.