Background
Technology, data and community
Pete has spent more than twenty-five years in technology, moving from hands-on development to leading technical functions while staying close to data and, more recently, AI.
He has long put the same skills to work in the community. At Switchboard LGBT+, the national LGBTQIA+ helpline, he led the organisation's technology until late 2025: its CTO in all but title, alongside his official roles as Trustee, Secretary and Co-Chair.
Why directory.lgbt
It is too hard to find your people
Pete started directory.lgbt in April 2026. Loneliness and isolation run through LGBTQIA+ life at every age: moving to a new town, being the only person like you at work, or coming out later in life and finding everyone else already settled.
The groups that answer that already exist: a choir, a walking group, a trans social, a coffee morning or a Sunday football team. Too many are close to invisible online and passed on only by word of mouth.
The aim is simple: a group that used to be hard to find starts seeing new faces turn up.
The approach
Automation does the repetitive work; people make consequential decisions
The hard part of a directory is not making the first list. It is keeping the information current. directory.lgbt uses automation to gather and compare evidence, while retaining human review wherever a decision could affect whether or how an organisation is published.
The project is deliberately independent, with no parent organisation. Any suitable group can be included without signing up to somebody else's banner, and nobody has to prove they belong before using it.