Built on relationships and the art of listening.

Diana van de Kamp

Founder & Chair

Diana's commitment to the natural world has never been separate from her understanding of how the world works: politically, financially, and socially. A graduate of William & Mary in Philosophy and Political Science, she began her career in Washington DC as a Legislative Assistant to Senator Lowell Weicker of Connecticut, working directly on environmental legislation and policy.

From Washington she moved into international finance and publishing, spending nearly a decade at Institutional Investor in New York and London as Global Director of Sales and Corporate Memberships across Europe, Asia, and Latin America. She built networks across continents and developed a deep understanding of how to connect people, resources, and ideas across borders.

In 1997 Diana founded WildInvest in London, driven by a conviction that the right investment, in the right hands, at the right moment, could bring species and habitats back from the brink. The model was as personal as it was powerful. Donor members gave annually to a selected conservation project, with project leaders travelling from around the world to London and New York to present their work in person. Over fourteen years WildInvest funded thirteen projects across twelve countries.

In 2004 Diana was nominated to the Board of Trustees of Fauna & Flora, the United Kingdom's oldest conservation organisation, with His Royal Highness Prince William as Patron. She served on the board for two decades, and in 2011 was appointed Secretary and Treasurer of Fauna & Flora's US Board.

In 2026 Diana, in partnership with Celeste Allen, relaunched WildInvest. The conviction that has driven her career for four decades remains unchanged. The stories are just getting a bigger stage.

Celeste Allen

Director

Celeste's early upbringing on a small island off the coast of New Zealand's North Island instilled in her an early and enduring love of the natural world and a deep desire to protect it. She began working on conservation projects at the age of sixteen, and it was in the field that she discovered what she was most drawn to: not the science alone, but also the people. The community leaders and land stewards whose deep knowledge of place was quietly sustaining ecosystems that no outside intervention could replicate.

Celeste holds a dual degree from Columbia University and Trinity College Dublin. She has interacted with conservation projects across Africa and Latin America,  most recently in Nicaragua. Celeste holds a private pilot's licence, an invaluable tool for reaching the remote landscapes where the most important work so often happens.

Celeste is the co-founder of PathosPlanet Productions, a documentary company dedicated to telling the stories of communities living in harmony with the planet, a mission that sits at the very heart of what WildInvest exists to do. Celeste believes that conservation begins with listening: to communities, to landscapes, and to those who have lived alongside the natural world for generations. She brings that same curiosity, empathy, and long-term commitment to her role at WildInvest.