Elmer Zinkhann

Elmer Zinkhann is the Head of Design at Digital Catapult, leading a team dedicated to helping government, businesses, and academics explore, reframe, develop, and adopt responsible and advanced technologies to benefit the UK economy.

In this role, Elmer oversees projects such as masterclasses in technology, accelerator programs for startups, rapid innovation projects for small and medium-sized businesses, and managing complex multi-stakeholder projects driving digital transformation in various sectors. With nearly 20 years of design experience, Elmer has worked in consultancies, embedded client teams, in-house, and startups. He has contributed to projects with the London Metropolitan Police, Transport for London, a Formula 1 team, and Hutchison Whampoa Europe. He was part of the team that won the GSMA Best Handset award for INQ’s mobile phone in 2009.

Elmer holds a BSc in Industrial Design Engineering, specialising in design for interaction. He has been a guest speaker at the Royal College of Art and frequently mentors students in the Service Design MSc program at the London College of Communication. Additionally, Elmer is a certified Lego® Serious Play® facilitator and committee member of the UK Chapter of the Service Design Network. When not designing, Elmer enjoys practising the piano, playing games, and building Lego® sets with his two boys.