Diana was the Chief Executive of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) from 2004. Latterly, she was joint Chief Executive of Historic Scotland (HS), leading a major change programme in preparation for when the new body, Historic Environment Scotland, took over the roles of both these two successful heritage organisations in 2015. She retired from HES at the end of 2016.   

During her career, she led the transformation of the RCAHMS survey and recording programmes to create a world class online, spatially enabled and publicly accessible resource. She is passionate about engaging public interest through cross cultural understanding and enjoyment of both the historic and natural environment in Scotland. She has extensive experience in cultural heritage policy and cultural resource management, as well as public engagement and ‘citizen science’ programmes.  

Diana has extensive experience of governance in the charity sector. She was for many years a non-executive director of the National Trust for Scotland and more recently served as a Trustee of the Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh, and the Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick.  She is currently a trustee of the Scottish International Education Trust, an award giving trust.

She was the Chair of Arts and Business Scotland from 2016 to 2022, and is currently the Chair of the Scottish Association of Marine Science (SAMS), an academic partner institute of the UHI.