Antonia Romeo

Romeo was educated at North London Collegiate School and then Westminster School.[3][4] From there she went to Brasenose College, Oxford, from where she has an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. She also holds an MSc (Economics) from the London School of Economics, and an Advanced Management Programme diploma from Columbia Business School.[5]

From Oxford, Romeo joined Oliver Wyman in 1996, where she worked for three years.[6] Romeo then took an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics, and in 2000 joined 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][6]

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.[7] After a further two years, she left in 2015, and was succeeded by Indra Morris.[8]

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.[6][9][10] 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.[11] She appointed as Permanent Secretary of the Department for International Trade in January 2017, taking up the post in March.[12]

Romeo was appointed as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice in January 2021.[13]

While serving as Consul General in New York, Romeo offered assistance to controversial company Cambridge Analytica in landing more clients in the U.S. Romeo and trade officers working on her team discussed having Cambridge Analytica feature in a campaign to promote British technology companies, called "#dataisGREAT". The company was found to have appropriated data from Facebook users without permission, resulting in public outcry and congressional review. The company later closed.[14]

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