About Us
Founders Julie Simmons and Jill Hubbard Bowman are sisters who grew up on a farm in a no-stoplight town in Utah. They lived in the shadow of Willard Peak—a beautiful, daunting mountain. It took many years for them to see that women could get over the mountains and live adventurous lives they love.
Julie and Jill are committed to inspiring young women to dream big dreams. They want to help young women see from the mountain peak—not the valley floor.
The site was named "lookilulu" to capture the vision of helping young women to stop and see what is possible by profiling inspiring women and in honor of their mother Lou.
We are doing this for our daughters—Kaeli and Zoe—and yours.
Julie Simmons
Founder
Julie got married at nineteen and dropped out of college. She quickly regretted quitting. Julie went back to school and commuted 100 miles a day to her full-time secretarial job down a mountain canyon that was treacherous in the snowy, Utah winters.
With persistence, Julie received a BS degree in marketing from Utah State University. She gave birth to her daughter Kaeli shortly before graduation. Julie also earned a MBA from the University of Utah while she was working full time and the mother of two small children.
Julie spent ten years in the international electronics industry. Julie has served in senior management of several companies, including Bourns, Entek and Intelisys. Currently, she is Vice President of Information Services and Business Intelligence for MarketStar, a global sales and marketing outsourcing company, owned by Omnicom, and headquartered in Utah. She has completed the Omnicom Senior Management Executive Education Program, which is a nationally ranked executive training program. She is a member of the Women Tech Council Advisory Board and serves on the Marketing advisory committee for Weber School District.
She is happily married to her husband of twenty-five years and the mother of Kaeli and Kameron.
Jill Hubbard Bowman
Founder
Jill attended Brigham Young University on a full scholarship. She got married the day after she graduated and supported her husband while he finished his education.
For over a decade, she worked in laboratory jobs that were antithetical to her personality and core strengths. Eventually, Jill reconnected to her essential self, learned more about her natural strengths and personality, and discovered how to conquer the thoughts that were limiting her.
She found the path to a life she loves in a career where her personality is an asset.
Jill went to law school at the University of Michigan where she did joint graduate work in Women’s Studies. She studied with Catharine MacKinnon, one of the world’s foremost, feminist jurisprudence scholars. Jill also designed and taught undergraduate courses in Women and the Law.
After law school, Jill combined her love of science with the law and specialized in intellectual property and litigation. She worked for major law firms in Silicon Valley (Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati) and Chicago (Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione) for eight years.
After giving birth to twins and trying to juggle toddlers and trials, Jill left her large firm legal practice in Chicago and moved to Texas, where it is almost always sunny and warm.
Jill now has her own law practice helping startup companies protect their intellectual property and avoid liability. Jill also has a law blog at iplawforstartups.com. Jill also teaches classes about intellectual property law to entrepreneurs and software developers.
Jill is still married to her high school sweetheart and is the mother of Zoe and Drake.