Lady Anne-Marie Del Monte GCBE LOREE

Family

Lady Del Monte is the eldest daughter of Emilio Del Monte and Shivatmekar Jadeja, the latter heiress to a Lunar mining conglomerate and part of the Del Monte family's constant corporate empire building, the former a brother to James 'Slippery Jim' Del Monte, heir to the Del Monte fortune. Both were grandsons of Takei Hiraoka Del Monte, First Citizen from 3067-77 and part of the family's resurgence on the Earther political scene. Jim's son and heir, Philip Del Monte, has been touted as a potential First Citizen for many years, but his dissolute lifestytle and lack of aptitude for or interest in governance has always counted against him.

Education

Meanwhile, although she has grown up in the shadow of her cousin, Anne-Marie has shone in her own right. She went through the conventional education of a scion of one of the 'Twelve Families of Earth', but excelled intellectually and gained a doctorate in Economics from Havana University. She married Jerome Montmorency, a fellow student who also happened to become a prominent lawyer and politician, and they have three children, a son and twin daughters, and although the couple are now estranged, they reportedly remain on good terms and still technically married.

Senate Career

Jerome was elevated to the Senate first, but with Del Monte money behind her Anne-Marie's own award of the GCBE and selection to the Senate followed soon after in 3190. Both took the whip of the Imperial Party, and served dilligently under the Qureshi and Zhang administrations, under the latter of which Anne-Marie received the title of Lady of the Regal Earth Empire (LOREE) and became Lady Del Monte. She was passed over during the Ashanti Administration, but on the accession of Sebastian Rathbone to First Minister, she was asked to become Minister of Finance on account of her economics background. Since then she has been close to Rathbone and a key figure in his own attempts to re-make the Solar Republic and Empire, and in 3220 was asked to become Foreign Minister.

At the age of 70, Lady Del Monte has spent 40 years in Imperial politics, 30 of them in the Senate, and has become renowned as a skilled political operator. Polite to a fault in public, she is known to have a sharp tongue and caustic sense of humour in private.