...Ours began with our family.
Long before there was Loma, before we ever imagined building a software platform, there was simply a family trying to understand how best to support someone they loved.
Our younger brother was diagnosed with autism at a very young age.
His journey changed all of ours.
Like so many families, we encountered extraordinary professionals, dedicated services and people who genuinely wanted to help. But we also discovered something else.
Every service saw part of the picture.
Every professional brought valuable expertise.
Yet no one could easily see the whole journey.
That experience never left us.
It shaped the careers we chose, the questions we asked and, ultimately, the reason Loma exists today.
While our brother has chosen not to be identified publicly, he remains the inspiration behind everything we are building.
That experience never left us. It taught us that good decisions depend on seeing the whole person, not just the part that happens to be in front of you.
Every great idea begins with a story...
Why we built Loma
Michael has built his career on the frontline of mental health and learning disability services, caring for people in some of the most complex clinical environments.
More than a decade in nursing, including senior roles within medium secure services, has given him a deep understanding of behaviour, clinical need and the realities of delivering care.
That experience reinforced a simple but profound truth.
Behaviour cannot be understood in isolation.
Patterns emerge over time. Small observations matter. The right understanding, available at the right moment, can change the decisions professionals make and the outcomes people experience.
That clinical perspective shapes every insight Loma is designed to deliver.
Paul Howell
Building technology around people
Paul has spent more than three decades building and scaling technology businesses, leading digital transformation programmes and developing healthcare technology used by millions of people.
Throughout that journey, one frustration remained.
Technology had become increasingly effective at collecting information, but far less effective at helping people build understanding.
Reflecting on our family experiences made one thing clear.
The problem wasn't a lack of commitment.
It wasn't a lack of expertise.
It was a lack of connected understanding.
Loma was created to change that.
Stephen has spent more than a decade in leadership roles across adult mental health and learning disabilities, children’s residential care and special education, supporting people with complex needs and helping organisations create environments where individuals can thrive.
His career has centred on Positive Behaviour Support, quality, operational leadership and developing teams that deliver consistently outstanding care.
That experience has shown him the importance of bringing together the knowledge, observations and experience of everyone involved in a person’s support.
He understands that meaningful outcomes are rarely created by individual interventions, but through consistent, informed decisions made every day by people who truly understand the individual they support.
That operational perspective became a cornerstone of Loma.
Stephen Howell
Helping people flourish through better support
Michael Howell
Seeing behaviour where it matters most
Three Different Paths. One Shared Purpose.
Although our careers evolved independently, they were connected by a common thread.
Each of us developed expertise in a different part of the system.
Over time, we realised that the challenges we were trying to solve weren't separate at all.
Loma is the point where those different perspectives come together.
Why Loma?
LOMA
(lo·ma)
noun | Spanish: A little hill.
Life is a series of little hills. Some are expected, others arrive without warning. For the people we support, their families and the professionals who care for them, every hill represents a challenge to be understood, not simply overcome. We built Loma to help people navigate those moments with greater understanding, one step at a time.