Willoughby's CEO and co-founder, Lenore Sarasan, has been working in museums since 1966 and designing collections management systems since 1970. For many years, Sarasan distributed the systems she developed free of charge to interested institutions.

In 1980 Sarasan, then at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, joined forces with fellow staff member Jane Sunderland to begin the first comprehensive survey of museum collections management in the United States. In 1981 Sarasan and Sunderland formally incorporated Willoughby Associates, Limited, which has grown into the leading museum software company in the world.

Sarasan is married and has one child. She plays a mean accordion, loves mathematics and puzzles, and collects science toys with a passion.