Antonia Romeo

Romeo was educated at North London Collegiate School and then Westminster School.[2][3] From there she went to Brasenose College, Oxford, where she graduated with an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 1996.[1]

From Oxford, Romeo joined Oliver Wyman in 1996, where she worked for three years.[4] Romeo then took an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics, and in 2000 joined Her Majesty's Civil Service into the Lord Chancellor's Department as a professional economist. In 2004, Romeo became the head of the information rights division within the new Department for Constitutional Affairs, in charge of freedom of information and related government policies.[1]

In 2006, Romeo became Principal Private Secretary to the Lord Chancellor — initially The Lord Falconer, then from 2007 Jack Straw. In 2008, Romeo transferred to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as the Director of Whitehall Liaison Department, responsible with the FCO's relations with intelligence agencies and other government departments.[1][4]

Following the 2010 United Kingdom general election and the subsequent formation of the Cameron–Clegg coalition, Romeo transferred to the Cabinet Office as the Executive Director in the new Efficiency and Reform Group responsible for Government Reform, under Francis Maude. After 18 months, Romeo moved back to her original department, now called the Ministry of Justice, as Director-General for Transforming Justice. Two years later, in 2013, Romeo took over from Helen Edwards, combining her brief of "Justice Policy" and as Director-General for Criminal Justice.[5] After a further two years, she left in 2015, and was succeeded by Indra Morris.[6]

In 2015, Romeo served as the British government's "Special Envoy to the U.S. technology companies", and then as Director-General of the Economic and Domestic Secretariat in the Cabinet Office, replacing Melanie Dawes.[4][7][8] After eight months, Romeo moved to New York. Romeo then undertook the Advanced Management Programme at Columbia University.

In July 2016, Romeo was appointed Her Majesty’s Consul General in New York, replacing Danny Lopez. The role combined consular work with business work under the auspices of UK Trade & Investment.[9] She impressed Dr Liam Fox, then Secretary of State for International Trade, who intervened to ensure she was hired as Permanent Secretary DIT.

• Site of the British Consulate-General in New York
• Romeo's Twitter account