Diane is a highly passionate marketeer, ideas generator, and entrepreneur. She founded the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator in London two years ago, graduating 37 startups to date and building Microsoft's presence in the startup space. Perlman’s passion for startups stems from her over 20-year marketing career, during which she served as Marketing Director for American company Cyveillance, which was a startup when Perlman joined in 1998 and helped them expand to the UK in 2000. She has also worked as a Group Account Director at agencies including Grey London and LBi, and has run her own branding consultancy. More recently, she led the marketing communications for Windows Phone at Microsoft in the UK for four years before transitioning into the Startups Lead role. She was named a British Interacetive Media Awards top 100 Digital Leader in the UK in 2016.

Diane has a BA in Mass Communications from the University of Delaware and a MSB from Johns Hopkins University. Originally from the United States, Diane has been based in London for the past 20 years. She will be making frequent trips between the different MassChallenge locations on three continents. When not travelling for business, Diane loves to travel in her spare time, with top spots visited being Cuba, Galapagos, Cambodia and Cape Town. She also enjoys ridiculously hot yoga and is an enthusiastic cook and foodie.