For more than 25 years, Ed Niehaus has been building businesses and brands in Silicon Valley. In leading Cooper he taps into his passionate belief that loved brands come from lovable products and that deep relationships grow from great service.

Working with Ed puts us in good company: when two Stanford grad students wanted to grow Yahoo from its Stanford roots, they turned to Ed, and the resulting five year PR engagement helped build one of the world's biggest brands. When Steve Jobs came back to turn Apple around, he chose Ed, the long-time CEO of Niehaus Ryan Wong Public Relations and the guy who was spearheading PR for Pixar and NeXT.

Ed brings us plenty of connections and business expertise. He was general partner at Cypress Ventures after leaving Niehaus Ryan in 2002, then left to become CEO of Fluid, Inc. He has served as a board member for Avinon, Bio Quiddity, ClickAction (now part of InfoUSA), MovePoint and as board observer for SocialText. He currently is on the advisory boards of SD Forum and VC Taskforce, and is non-executive chairman of Collaborative Drug Discovery, Inc.

For over 30 years Alan Cooper has been a pioneer of the modern computing era. His groundbreaking work in software invention, design and construction has influenced a generation of programmers and business people—and helped a generation of users. Alan is the author of two best-selling books, About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design and The Inmates Are Running the Asylum, and his visionary ideas and outspoken style make him a popular speaker. Whether you know him as the "Father of Visual Basic," the inventor of personas, or the guy who thinks software should be spanked, we know him as the man whose ideas are the foundation of what we do.

After years of leading marketing efforts for some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley, Sue Cooper had a vision: use her business experience to turn Alan’s ideas about software into a world-class consulting firm focused on interaction design. Sue also knew that if focusing on human goals made for better products, it would make a better company, too. Fifteen years later, Cooper leads the industry. As we continue to grow and expand our services, Sue ensures that we not only maintain an exceptional level of service for our clients, but also continue to be a great place to work.

As GM, Kim ensures that the company is planning for the future and that current operations are on track. As VP Design, Kim has played a major role in developing our Goal-Directed methods and turning them into the Cooper U curriculum, and she continues to work with the leaders of each design discipline to evolve and improve our practice. Her design expertise and teaching skill have made her popular as a speaker at conferences around the world. Kim has led a wide range of design projects, from e-commerce sites to information appliances, IP telephony systems, and complex healthcare applications. Before joining Cooper, Kim was a creative director and an educator.

David’s particular area of focus is the health of the consulting practice, where he shapes engagements, oversees the application of our method, and ensures successful project outcomes. He also provides design consulting services and teaches design courses. In his ten years at Cooper, he has helped evolve the Goal-Directed Method by leading a wide array of design engagements. The products he has designed have helped a broad range of people, from factory workers to physicians, golf course superintendents, telco network planners, securities traders, and ordinary people who just want to get stuff done without being bothered by rude software. Before joining Cooper, David was a designer, a teacher, and a writer.