Diana Propper de Callejon

Diana Propper de Callejon has more than twenty five years of experience backing and building sustainability and values‐led companies.

Diana is a Managing Director at Cranemere, a holding company that acquires privately held, middle-market companies in the United States and Europe. With permanent capital, Cranemere has no view to exit the companies it partners with, and has a “buy, build, and hold” strategy.

Diana leads Cranemere’s Sustainability and Purpose team, focused on acquiring ownership stakes in market leaders and mission-led companies across diverse sectors, including energy efficiency, environmental services, organic food, and healthy living, as well as partnering with diverse mission driven companies. Diana works with all Cranemere’s operating companies to further enhance their environmental and social impact to build value for all stakeholders. 

Prior to joining Cranemere, Diana was a Partner at Expansion Capital Partners, a sustainability and cleantech growth equity fund where she led investments in green building and energy efficiency, taking companies public and executing successful trade sales. Diana has also been an advisor to family offices on developing impact investment strategies for both fund and direct investments.

Diana’s work in mobilizing capital to solve environmental and social problems has its roots in her sustainable development work in Africa and South America, including backing small businesses and cooperatives in the Brazilian Amazon that harvested, processed, and exported non-timber forest products, such as fruits, nuts, and essences. Customers included Ben & Jerry’s, the Body Shop, and Knudsen’s.

Diana is a board member of the Natural Resources Defense Council (Investment Committee Chair) and Echoing Green, which provides seed stage funding to social entrepreneurs. She is on the Advisory Board of Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, and was a founding board member of Capital Institute, a center of innovation focused on evolving the financial system to align it with the long-term health of ecosystems and societies. Most recently, Diana was the executive producer of Beyond Zero. The film captures the story of Interface and the founder/CEO Ray Anerson’s journey in reducing the company’s overall environmental footprint, in particular, becoming net zero in climate emissions.

Diana has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.A. Summa Cum Laude from Duke University. She lives with her family in New York City.