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Kristine Romano

PartnerManila

Works with public- and private-sector entities to transform operations, improve performance, and unlock growth

Kristine advises clients on a range of issues, from market entry and growth to performance transformation. Her extensive experience in the design and implementation of large-scale transformation programs informs her work on building successful, sustainable organizations in the private and public sectors of the Philippines. She also helps clients develop and implement digital strategies. She works across key sectors, including financial services, healthcare, education, infrastructure, transportation, consumer goods, and the public sector.

Across Southeast Asia, Kristine counsels government entities on how to accelerate economic development and strengthen public finances. She is deeply committed to the region, particularly the Philippines. When super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) hit the Philippines in November 2013, Kristine led McKinsey’s work to support government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and private firms in their disaster-relief and -recovery activities. She continues to work with a private-sector-led consortium to institutionalize a coordinated response from the business community in times of disaster.

Examples of Kristine’s recent client work include the following:

  • developing a ten-year blueprint to transform the Ministry of Finance in a large Asian country
  • helping shape the long-term strategy for an Asian infrastructure fund
  • supporting a Southeast Asian government in shaping an economic-stimulus package
  • advising a leading financial-services firm in the Philippines on its retail- and commercial-growth strategies
  • developing a Philippines market-entry strategy for a multinational consumer-goods company
  • assisting a global pharmaceutical firm with its Philippines growth strategy, which included assessing the healthcare preferences of the country’s fast-growing middle class
  • working with the Ministry of Education in an Asian country to design and deliver high-priority initiatives to transform the education system, which included a coaching program for underperforming teachers

Kristine was previously the managing partner of our Philippines office. She is the first Filipina to be elected partner in the firm.

Published work

On the verge of a digital banking revolution in the Philippines,” McKinsey & Company, May 2023

What does 2023 hold for the Philippines’ economy?,” McKinsey & Company, March 2023

Philippines economic outlook 2022,” McKinsey & Company, April 2022

Deepening capital markets in the Philippines,” McKinsey & Company, September 2017

Sustaining and accelerating the Philippines’ growth,” McKinsey & Company, June 2016

Philippines late to join digital banking, but change is coming,” McKinsey & Company, May 2015

Education

John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
MPA, international development

University of the Philippines
BS, business administration and accountancy