Pamela Lopker

In 1972, Lopker started college at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) as a mathematics and economics major.[2][3] She is also certified in Product and Inventory Management by the American Production and Inventory Control Society.[1]

Lopker and her husband gave a $500,000 endowment to UCSB in 2005 and are also actively involved with the school through other means such as mentorship and acting as guest lecturers.[2]

After graduating from college in 1977,  Lopker worked writing software that provided radar defense systems for a Naval defense contractor in Goleta, California.[4] She eventually left that job and pursued a career in business oriented software development.[3]

In 1979, Karl Lopker, Lopker’s UCSB classmate and boyfriend, asked her to help him find software to track the sales, inventory, and shipments of his sandal company, Deckers Outdoors. After finding a lack of suitable software, she decided to start her own company, QAD, that would develop software to deal with all facets of manufacturing.[5] Lopker says that she named the company using the initials of the nearby Queen Anne Road. Since the name QAR was already in use, Lopker replaced the R with a D.[3] Shortly after QAD was founded, Mr. Lopker sold his company Deckers Outdoors and joined QAD as CEO.[3] Mr. Lopker focused on sales and marketing, while Lopker was responsible for research and development.[3]

In the late 1980s, the Lopkers sued another distributor for allegedly developing a product that had stolen QAD software. The distributor countersued the Lopkers for defamation of character and malicious prosecution. A federal judge in Chicago dismissed the claims, saying that Lopker had lied in her testimony. The case was eventually settled in 1993 with QAD paying several million dollars in damages.[3]

In 2005, QAD was in use in over 90 countries by more than 5,000 manufacturers, had $230 million in revenue, and 1,200 employees.[2]

Fortune magazine has named Lopker “The Hero of U.S. Manufacturing” and “The Queen of Elegant Software.” She has also been called “A Legend of Manufacturing” by Manufacturing Systems.[1] In 1997, Lopker was inducted into the Women in Technology Hall of Fame.[6]

Lopker was born in Japan in 1962 as the second child of three. Her father was an engineer for the U.S. Navy, and as a result, Lopker attended 8 Catholic schools in 12 years;[3] she and her family continue to be active members of the Catholic Church.[3] Lopker’s family eventually settled in Cupertino, California where she was the first student at her school to earn an A in her auto shop class.

In 1981, Lopker married friend and business partner Karl Lopker with whom she has 2 children.[5] In 2018, Karl passed away of prostate cancer.[7]