Tom Loosemore founded the UK's Government Digital Service (GDS), and served as its deputy director until 2015. More recently he has been supporting one of the world’s largest retail co-operatives in its digital transformation
GDS was established to make sure that the UK government offers world-class digital services that meet people’s needs. GDS is now recognised as a world-leader in digital government transformation, having raised the UK from 8th to 1st in the UN e-government rankings. GDS has been cited as a model by the US, Canadian, Australian and Singapore governments who have since established their own digital departments.
Loosemore wrote the UK Government Digital Strategy in 2012, and led the agile project to create GOV.UK, the single website for UK Government, which has now received over 2 billion visits, and won the UK’s top design award in 2013. He also led the digital transformation of several other public services, including resetting the largest reform of the welfare state since 1947 as a successful agile transformation programme.
Loosemore now advises senior leaders in governments and large institutions around the world as they transform their services using Internet-era ways of working. He was the driving force behind a raft of innovative e-democracy websites including TheyWorkForYou.com, and later helped found mySociety, a global civic-tech charity.
Prior to joining the UK Government, Loosemore was senior digital advisor to OFCOM, the UK communications regulator, and ran Channel 4’s digital innovation fund. Between 2001 and 2007 he was responsible for the BBC's Internet strategy, after launching the BBC's first sport websites in the late 1990s.
