About Me

Romano is a South African consultant and facilitator who specializes in Strategic Foresight, Design Thinking, Innovation, Systems Change, Leadership training, and Learning & Development.

With over a decade experience, Romano has worked with some of the largest multinational corporations and International Organizations to identify emerging trends, develop strategic roadmaps and learning plans, and influence decision-making processes to ensure organizational success. In short, helping people figure out what they are going to do with all their futures.

Romano has lived and worked in a number of countries throughout Southern Africa, East and South East Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

Guiding Philosophy

Since his teenage years, Romano has always been guided by a deep sense of equity and equality. This has shaped much of his world view and his approach to consulting, training, and facilitation.

Romano deeply believes that by designing for marginalized and underrepresented groups, we design for everyone. This can be seen in his facilitation style where he creates opportunities for equal participation to the way he leads teams so that members feel safe and empowered to do their best work.

By asking "who is not in the room", Romano also ensures that a wide range of perspectives are always considered before decisions are made.

Actions over Thoughts

'What are we going to do with all this Future?', a slogan originally coined by Spanish artist Coco Capitán and Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele, has become a major animating force in Romano's life. Making it plural, 'What are we going to do with all these futures?', Romano believes that multiple futures exist all the time and that we create the present by accepting and rejecting futures everyday. This requires action and decision.

Using this as a guide, Romano has shaped his professional life to help people look beyond thought and towards action. He believes that simply talking about the future is not enough and that ideas of the future need to be used to guide decisions in the present.

Romano has always been interested in research and has worked as an editor, research assistant, researcher, and research team lead at think tanks and similar institutions at various points in his career.

While able to design and conduct research in most social science related fields, his personal research focus is primarily centered around Futures Studies, Design Thinking, Gender and Feminist Studies, and Urban Development.

These areas of focus aligned in his Master Degree thesis that explored Intersectional Feminist Perspectives on the Future African City. Romano is still currently pursuing his Master Degree and is awaiting his thesis defense.

Romano has also conducted research and presented papers in International Relations, Political Science, Education and Pedagogy, as well as Mass Communication disciplines.

Research Direction

Romano has played field hockey his entire life and continues to play weekly. He is also an avid boulderer and occasional runner.

Romano loves the beach and you can often find him hopping off to the nearest one with a good book. When a beach is not nearby, Romano can be seen at a local coffee shop sipping on espressos.

Amongst other things, Romano is a son, a brother, an uncle, a partner, an animal and music lover, a coffeeholic, a traveler, and a 'tryer of new things'.

Outside Work