Diane Hessan is an award-winning entrepreneur and innovator, a seasoned board director, and a nationally recognized expert on the American voter.

She is the founder and Chairman of C Space, formerly called Communispace, which was the first company to leverage social media to help companies get insight and inspiration from their consumers. Diane was CEO of the company during fourteen years of exponential growth, as C Space worked with hundreds of global brands across twelve countries.  She was also CEO of Startup Institute, and currently leads Salient Ventures, an angel investment firm. In 2021, she was elected to NACD’s Directorship 100 for general excellence in the boardroom, and in 2023, she was inducted into the Market Research Hall of Fame.

From 2016-2021, she conducted an in-depth, longitudinal study of the electorate, looking for trends, shifts and common ground. She wrote more than fifty columns about her findings for the Boston Globe, culminating in the publication of her book, Our Common Ground.

Diane serves on the boards of Panera Brands, Eastern Bank, Brightcove, Sago, Tufts University, NACD New England and is vice-chair of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center trustee advisory board. She received a BA in economics and English from Tufts University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.