Developer of a query language for the database setup for Standard & Poor's 6400 computer, Loftus began her career with Control Data Corporation (CDC) in 1965 in both their Palo Alto, California and Arden Hills, Minnesota facilities, where she originally worked in Applications Software, becoming a project leader after two years, after which she moved to Operating Systems.
Born in Connecticut, where her father taught at Yale, Loftus's family then moved to San Francisco where he continued to teach, after which they moved to Oklahoma for family reasons. While she dropped out of high school, she attended Oklahoma State University where she received her B.S. degree in Mathematics. It was at Oklahoma State where she had her introduction to computers, writing programs using an IBM 1620 computer which produced the output on punched cards.
She advanced at CDC; however, Loftus joined Cray Research, Inc. in 1976, where she became Vice President of Software in 1980. She resigned from Cray in 1987 and became an independent consultant and business advisor.
She co-founded Loftus Brown-Wescott, Inc. in 1989, providing consulting services to technology companies. Loftus became Chairman of Unimax Systems Corporation in 1991 and also served as its Director. She has served as a Director of Datalink Corp. from June 1998 and as a Trustee of the Babbage Foundation. She became a Director of Proto Labs, Inc. in April 2001 and has served as an Independent Director of Analysts International Corp. from 1993 to May 28, 2008.
