Well-heeled economist shone in US
ANTONIA Romeo wears the job of running Whitehall ministries as comfortably as her trademark snakeskin Christian Louboutin heels.
The economist, once tipped as Britain’s first female head of the civil service, thrives in the limelight. When the mother of three became the first woman to serve as the UK’s consul general in New York in 2016, she wasted little time in throwing a girls’ lunch for guests including George Osborne’s then-wife Frances and former Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown.
Balancing easy charm with razor-sharp intellect, the following year saw her host a rooftop party in honour of Vogue chief Anna Wintour. Mrs Romeo’s young son served canapes to guests such as Calvin Klein, Michael Kors and Alexa Chung.
Praised by ministers for championing post-Brexit trade opportunities, Mrs Romeo, 46, hosted events at her residence three or four nights a week. The daughter of academics, she was educated at Westminster School before studying PPE at Brasenose College, Oxford. She then worked at US management consultancy Oliver Wyman, where she met her Italian husband John, before joining the civil service as an economist in 2000. After her success in New York, she became permanent secretary at the newly-created Department for International Trade, where she helped land deals with Japan and Canada. She has since become permanent secretary at the Ministry of Justice.
There is no doubt Mrs Romeo has made enemies along the way. Targeted by a hostile briefing campaign last year, she faced claims of bullying but was cleared by an inquiry. Dave Penman of the senior civil servants’ union FDA said the allegations had a ‘whiff of misogyny’.