Diana Purcel is chief financial officer and corporate secretary of Famous Dave's of America, a publicly held company specializing in great barbecue available at approximately 170 restaurants in 36 states across the nation.  In that capacity she is responsible for all of the accounting and finance functions, investor relations, internal audit, legal, purchasing, real estate and information systems.

Prior to joining Famous Dave's in November 2003, Diana was chief financial officer and chief accounting officer of Paper Warehouse, Inc. where she also had previously served as controller.  She has also held positions with Provell, Inc. (formerly Damark International), Target Corporation (formerly Dayton Hudson Corporation) and Arthur Andersen.

Diana, a Minnesota native and graduate of Tulane University in New Orleans, is a certified public accountant.  Diana is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the Minnesota State Society of CPA's, the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI), the National Restaurant Association (NRA) and the Women's Food Service Forum (WFF).  Diana sits on the advisory council for the Minnesota School of Business's accounting program, and has been a volunteer speaker at The University of St. Thomas and the Minnesota School of Business.  Up until November 2008, Diana served as a board member and Chair of the Audit Committee for the Multicultural Food and Hospitality Alliance (MFHA).  Diana received the honor of being named a Top Woman in Finance for the State of Minnesota by Finance-Commerce in 2005, was named a 'Forty-under-Forty' honoree by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal in 2006 and was a finalist for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal CFO of the year for 2007.

Diana lives in a suburb of Minnesota with her husband of twenty years, her three children, Brandon, Laurel and Blake, and her 2 cats.