Chief Technology Officer
Lorenzo
De Francesco
Building the bank of the future from scratch — where the financial advisor comes first.
Leading the technology development at TNB Project (Gruppo Azimut), and CTO at Azimut Marketplace. 10+ years in fintech, turning IT into a strategic asset — with a relentless focus on cyber security, data governance, and data integrity.
10+
Years Experience
70%
IT Costs Reduced
40+
Talks & Events
15+
Projects Delivered
About Me
I am Lorenzo, a CTO who transforms IT from a cost center into a strategic asset. With more than 10 years in fintech, I combine deep technical expertise with business acumen to build teams, optimize costs, and deliver enterprise platforms at scale.
Today I lead the technology development of the bank of the future at TNB Project (Gruppo Azimut), and I'm CTO at Azimut Marketplace, where I rebuilt the entire IT department, reduced costs by over €700k, and turned a spreadsheet-driven operation into a scalable, cloud-native platform. Earlier, within the Sella banking group I coordinated the development of SME Banking, and at Costa Crociere I built mission-critical software deployed directly on board cruise ships — experience that shapes how I lead engineering today.
Learn MoreWhere I've Made an Impact
TNB Project
CurrentGruppo Azimut · 2025 — Today
Building the bank of the future from scratch — where the financial advisor comes first.
I lead the technology and architecture end to end, with a relentless focus on cyber security, data governance, and the integrity of data.
Azimut Marketplace
Chief Technology Officer · 2022 — Today
I built the IT department from scratch, cut over €700k of recurring infrastructure costs, and turned a spreadsheet-driven operation into a scalable fintech platform — establishing governance, security, and an engineering culture that runs autonomously.
Fabrick · Banca Sella
Architect & Team Leader · Sella Group
Within the Sella banking group, I coordinated the development of SME Banking — leading a team of engineers, defining the React architecture, and building the shared component libraries behind the group's banking products.
What I Bring to the Table
Cost Optimization
-700kReduced recurring IT infrastructure costs by over €700k through vendor renegotiations, cloud optimization, and strategic insourcing.
Team Building
Built an IT department from scratch and mentored two developers into technology leaders, creating a self-sustaining engineering culture.
IT Governance
100%Established complete IT governance with security policies, GDPR compliance, SSO integration, and automated monitoring across all services.
Platform Transformation
Excel → SaaSTurned a spreadsheet-driven operation into a robust, scalable SaaS platform — with proper cloud architecture, CI/CD, and observability across all services.
Speaking & Thought Leadership
I am a regular speaker at conferences, meetups, panels, and podcasts across Italy — with 40+ talks on IT governance, cloud architecture, cybersecurity, microfrontends, and the journey from developer to technology leader.
Open Source
Swagger Aggregator
Auto-discover and merge all your Swagger docs in Kubernetes
A Kubernetes-native service that auto-discovers Ingress resources and aggregates their Swagger API definitions into a unified interface.
Community & Education
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Lorenzo De Francesco?
- Lorenzo De Francesco is a Chief Technology Officer based in Milan, Italy. He leads the technology development of TNB Project, a digital bank built from scratch inside Gruppo Azimut, and is CTO at Azimut Marketplace. His work covers technology strategy, cloud architecture, IT governance and cyber security.
What does a CTO actually do?
- A CTO owns the technology strategy behind the business goals: choosing the architecture, building and leading the engineering team, setting security and governance policy, and controlling infrastructure spend. In practice it is less about writing code than about deciding what gets built, by whom, and at what cost.
How do you reduce IT infrastructure costs?
- By attacking three things in order: vendor contracts, cloud waste, and work paid for externally that belongs in-house. At Azimut Marketplace that combination removed over €700k of recurring annual cost — roughly 70% — through renegotiation, right-sizing cloud resources, and insourcing development.
What is microfrontend orchestration?
- It is managing many independently deployed frontend applications as a single product: routing users to the right version, handling environments and rollbacks, and keeping deployments consistent across teams. MFE Orchestrator, an open source project, does for microfrontends roughly what Kubernetes does for containers.
Is Lorenzo available for consulting or fractional CTO work?
- Yes. Alongside his executive roles he takes advisory and fractional engagements: technology strategy, cloud architecture reviews, IT governance, and helping organisations build or restructure an engineering team. Engagements are typically with fintech and enterprise companies in Italy. The contact form on this site reaches him directly.
Can Lorenzo speak at my conference or podcast?
- Yes — he has delivered more than 45 talks, in Italian and English, at events including Codemotion, DevFest and Winter Tech. Recurring topics are IT governance, cloud architecture, cyber security, microfrontends, AI agents, and the path from developer to CTO. Past talks are listed under Events.
Looking for a technology leader?
Whether it's strategy, architecture, or a talk for your event — let's have a chat.