Ella Walding

Ella is Head of Service Design at Innovation Unit, where she leads the Service Design Team in using design as a hopeful, strategic tool to tackle some of society’s most complex and urgent challenges.

She is passionate about design as a means of achieving social justice. Ella believes design can be transformative in helping us to imagine better futures and unite people in their creation. She is committed to equitable design that democratises systems and challenges the boundaries and social structures that often constrain us. At the heart of her work is a belief in giving people both the permission and the processes to reimagine their communities and create social impact at scale.

Ella has led teams and supported leaders across a wide range of sectors, including mental health, children’s social care, justice, employment support, and local government. She brings deep experience in using service design to create meaningful change in complex systems—helping to grow the mindsets, capabilities, conditions and structures that enable transformational change to happen.

Outside of work, Ella lives with her partner and two cats in a house where every room is painted a different colour. She finds joy in sunshine, gardening, painting, aerial fitness, and contributing to social impact—for people and the planet.