As of January 2026, David van Zelm van Eldik will join Staatsbosbeheer as program manager of the National Parks Office. He will succeed Saskia de Mol van Otterloo, who a few months ago moved to LandschappenNL.
David is currently working as program leader Our Landscape at the Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning. The national parks are familiar to him. For example, he led design research from the Beautiful Netherlands program into opportunities for the transition of rural areas. The guidelines for transitional areas and green-blue veining developed there were partly realized in collaboration with several national parks.
David is 50 years old, lives in Rijswijk with his wife and two daughters. In his free time, David is a hockey coach and also the initiator and manager of the historical vegetable garden of the Cromvliet estate, a partnership of children, local residents, and the municipality of Rijswijk.