Umberto is a senior advisor to Accirculate. He retired from the Italian Air Force in February 2014 with the rank of Major General, after 42 years of service and continued working for the European Commission until May 2018. He graduated at the Air Force Academy in Naples (Italy).

During his career, Umberto accomplished increasingly important operational and staff positions, including: Commander of 23rd Air Defence Squadron (Rimini, AFB), Head of Department - Air War College (Florence), Courses Director at the Air Force Academy (Naples), Commander of the 3rd Wing (Verona AFB), Italian Representative to the NATO Senior Resources Board (Bruxelles), Head of office - Air Chief of Staff cabinet, NATO-ISAF’s Regional Coordinator West (Herat–Afghanistan) and Head of the Airspace and Meteorology General Office.

In 2010 Umberto was assigned to the European Commission DG MOVE where he was the focal point in liaising between the European Commission and the European military community for the development of the Single European Sky initiative, including representing the Commission in meetings and events to address security and Defence matters in the context of civil aviation (e.g. ICAO, EUROCONTROL).

In 2011, Umberto managed a comprehensive consultation process with the UAS/RPAS community at large, in close coordination with EASA and the SESAR Joint Undertaking, which culminated with the approval of an initial European Roadmap for the insertion of “Drones” and paved the way to further R&I and regulatory initiatives.