Curriculum Vitae

Hi! I'm Luca, originally from San Marino—the world's oldest republic. I've been living in Dubai for several years, where I've turned my passion for technology into over 15 years of career in banking, fintech, and event technology. I'm a technology leader who loves getting hands dirty with code just as much as leading teams and digital transformation projects.

I've had the privilege of working on significant projects like Mashreq Neo, Mashreq's UBO platform, and directing the technology infrastructure (and not only) of Info Salons Middle East which stands behind some of the Middle East's largest events: GITEX Global, Gulfood, IDEX, and the World Defense Show. My approach? Scalable systems, cloud engineering, DevOps, and a healthy dose of AI where it makes sense (and where it doesn't just become marketing buzzwords).

When I'm not in front of a screen debugging code or exploring the latest AI innovations, you'll probably find me in the water surfing or kitesurfing, or tennis court, or immersed in some video game (because even VPs need to unplug). I firmly believe technology should serve people, not the other way around. And yes, I spend more time than I probably should experimenting with ChatGPT, Claude, and everything AI has to offer—it's my digital playground.

What drives me? Infinite curiosity, respect for the team, and the belief that the best systems are born from the balance between innovation and pragmatism. If you're looking for someone who can translate ambitious visions into solid architectures, manage teams with empathy, or simply chat about technology, sports, or parenting in the digital age—I'm your guy.

• Led the company's end-to-end digital transformation, overseeing IT, Digital, and Onsite departments (25 staff) and maintaining 99.9% service uptime across high-volume events handling over 250,000 system transactions daily with high peaks exceeding 5,000 simultaneous requests during show hours.
• Redesigned and modernized infrastructure, migrating to AWS and implementing DevOps, IaaS, Terraform, and containerization, achieving a 40% faster release cycle, 35% cloud cost reduction, and 30% lower IT workload.
• Directed multi-million AED budgets and vendor relationships, optimizing multi-cloud investments, SLAs, and integrations across external, payments and partner ecosystems.
• Directed and led the design and development of SaaS platforms driving the company's digital transformation for exhibitions' attendee management, improving scalability, data performance, and overall user experience.
• Developed an internal AI-based documentation and training assistant, built on OpenAI models and APIs, to centralize knowledge, support staff training, and reduce dependency on technical resources.
• Directed corporate and product-level security initiatives including vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, and vendor security reviews.
• Built and mentored high-performing teams, fostering innovation, accountability, and operational excellence.

• Led digital transformation initiatives for major UAE financial institutions, focusing on digital onboarding, payments, and KYC automation in alignment with UAE Central Bank compliance.
• Managed the Mashreq Bank UBO (Unified Onboarding Officer) program, a tablet-based branch application developed from the ground up, overseeing a team of five engineers and coordinating requirements, architecture, and release cycles to ensure stability and scalability.
• Designed and supervised back-end enhancements using microservices and API-driven architectures to improve scalability, security, and data consistency across mobile and web platforms.
• Integrated Apple Pay and Google Pay with full card tokenization and secure authentication flows, expanding adoption of mobile payment solutions.
• Coordinated end-to-end release management, ensuring smooth collaboration among business, QA, and UAT teams, with consistent on-time delivery and zero critical deployment incidents.
• Acted as Agile Ninja, promoting continuous delivery, collaboration, and innovation across product squads and partner teams.

• Developed and launched multiple Mashreq Bank digital channels, including Mashreq Retail UAE, Mashreq NEO, Mashreq SME, and regional versions for Mashreq Egypt and Mashreq Qatar, contributing to the bank's multi-market digital transformation strategy.
• Implemented key functionalities such as bill payments, fund transfers, eKYC verification, spending analytics, biometric login, push notifications, and real-time transaction alerts, improving platform reliability, security, and user experience.
• Coordinated QA, release planning, and deployment cycles for high-availability banking and enterprise applications, ensuring stability and efficiency across releases.
• Contributed to EVA, a large-scale digital transformation project for Banca delle Marche, developing core banking modules and regulatory reporting systems using .NET web services, and implementing ETL workflows for data warehouse population to improve performance, accuracy, and compliance of financial reporting.
• Designed and developed the entire IT infrastructure renewal for Welfare S.R.L (ex Muoversi S.R.L), building scalable web platforms in PHP and SQL, streamlining business workflows, and digitizing employee welfare operations.

Team Management | People Management | Leadership | Budget Management | Communication | Problem Solving | Stakeholders Coordination | Digital Transformation | Cloud Infrastructure (AWS) | SaaS Platforms | AI & Automation Tools | Hands-on Projects | Coding | Web & Mobile Development | IT Security