![A white person with short cropped hair, smiling at the camera against a blurred background](https://stonewall.org.uk/sites/default/files/styles/basic_page_hero/public/untitled_design_-_2021-08-31t091629.827_1.png?itok=KmPBh35Z)
Lou Downe
![](https://stonewall.org.uk/sites/default/files/untitled_design_-_2021-08-31t091629.827_1.png)
Lou Downe (they/he)
Founder, School of Good Services
I run a professional coaching and training business called the School of Good Services, where I help organisations deliver services that meet the needs of their users and have a positive impact on the world. Before that, I spent six years in the UK Government establishing the cross-government standards for good services. I was nominated as one of the top 50 creative leaders by Creative Review and one of the world's 100 most influential leaders in digital government in 2018.
I grew up in Devon and outside of work I love to garden and cook. I’ve been known to take a stepladder to the park looking for walnuts, and take over derelict plots around London to turn them into allotments (with the help of some city-farm manure transported in my wife’s suitcase!).
I am hugely excited to be joining Stonewall's board of trustees. There are many who, because of their privilege, might feel that the battle for LGBTQ+ rights is won, but it is far from being so. We are not free until we're all free, and Stonewall is at the cornerstone of that mission.