Nicola Romeo

Nicola Romeo was an Italian engineer and entrepreneur.

Romeo (1876–1938), celebrated for his engineering talent and business success, was born in Sant’Antimo on 28 April 1876.

In 1899, the young Turin Polytechnic graduate, holding a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, went abroad to work. A few years later, he continued his education in electrical engineering in Liège, Belgium.

Returning to Italy in 1911, he founded Ing. Nicola Romeo e Co to manufacture mining machinery and equipment. He proved a successful entrepreneur: in 1915, just four years later, he acquired a controlling stake in Milan’s ALFA, the Lombardy Automobile Factory joint-stock company. In 1918, he became sole owner, and it was soon renamed Anonima Italiana Ing. Nicola Romeo. The first car bearing the Alfa Romeo name was the Torpedo 20/30 HP. The company quickly gained fame and an impeccable reputation, but the economic downturn beginning in 1927 hit hard and nearly forced liquidation. These events led Romeo to leave the company’s leadership in 1928.

His private life was happy. His only marriage, to Portuguese-born Angelina Valadin, brought seven children: Maurizio, Edoardo, Nicola, Elena, Giulietta, Piero and Irene.

He died aged sixty-two on 15 August 1938 at his home in Magreglio on Lake Como.

Almost seventy years later, on the 130th anniversary of his birth, a street in Naples was named in his honour.