Driven by his desire to restore insurance to its original purpose of providing mutual aid to those who need it most but can afford it least, Michele founded Democrance in 2015.

Prior to that, Michele worked in strategy and distribution at global insurance powerhouses AXA and MetLife in France, Egypt and the UAE. He is a frequent speaker at microinsurance, entrepreneurship and social innovation events, as well as a frequent contributor to publications in the Middle East and wider region.

On top of his position as CEO of Democrance, Michele sits on the Board of Directors at the Microinsurance Network, a non-profit member association of microinsurance experts, including donor organizations, multilateral agencies, insurance and social protection providers, policymakers and academics.

Italian by birth, Michele holds a Master’s degree in Management/Grande Ecole from ESCP Europe in Paris and an MSc in Economics from Turin University. He is also a graduate of Carlos III University in Madrid and City University in London.

Alberto looks after operations, products and the customer success functions in the business.

Educated at ICAI School of Engineering and EOI Business School in Spain, he started his career at PwC as a management consultant before relocating to Johannesburg where he worked at the Trade and Investment arm of the Government of Spain (ICEX) and helped small and medium-sized tech companies expand their operations into Sub-Saharan African markets.

Seeking new adventures, he relocated to Dubai as the CEO of a newly born B2C startup and soon after tried to (unsuccessfully) disrupt the petrol station market by launching an award-winning on-demand fuel service.

In 2016, he bumped into Michele while having a coffee at the accelerator where they both happened to be working. The connection between Michele’s vision and Alberto’s prior experience in Africa was immediate. The rest is history.

As founder of a boutique software development company, Tauri-Tec, Damian has built cutting-edge software for a diverse range of clients throughout his career. These include the United Nations, the UK government, a Nigerian electricity operator and a variety of startups in e-government, fintech and media.

Damian holds a PhD in Parallel Programming from the University of Kent and a BSc in Physics from King’s College London.

He is fluent in English, German and Polish.

Dan is a very experienced finance, strategy, and operations professional, with a specific passion for scaling B2B SaaS businesses.

Since 2021, Dan has been an investor and board member for Democrance. He later became CFO.

Prior to that, Dan held CFO, FD and other positions in scaling tech (mostly SaaS) businesses, supporting them through fundraising, M&A, building and growing finance operations and achieving scale. He co-founded and still co-leads Veridian Ventures, an early-stage tech-focused angel syndicate. Dan also spent 6 years in impact investing private equity in emerging markets, preceded by over a decade of management consulting with the likes of McKinsey & Co., EY and UBS, in both Europe and Asia.

He is a Romanian national, now residing in London, and holds an MBA from INSEAD. Dan is also a CIMA-qualified Management Accountant.

Medea Nocentini is Senior Partner at Global Ventures and a Board Member at Democrance. She is also Founder of Companies Creating Change (C3), a UAE-based social enterprise helping impact-driven entrepreneurs in MENA to unlock their growth potential and maximize their positive impact on the community.

Before joining Global Ventures, Medea served as Chief Strategy Officer at the AW Rostamani Group, an international and diversified family group, as well as Senior Vice President, Strategy and Corporate Development at OSN, a leading Pay TV platform in the MENA region. Earlier in her career, she spent several years at Booz Allen Hamilton developing strategies for TMT, consumer and public sector’s clients across Europe, the United States and the Middle East.

She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School (New York, USA), an MSc in Mechanical Engineering from Politecnico di Torino (Italy) and an Engineering Diploma from Ecole Centrale Paris (France).

Zeeshan is the Chief Investment Officer (CIO) at Saudi Aramco Entrepreneurship Ventures (Wa’ed Ventures) and a Board Member at Democrance.
In his current role at Wa’ed Ventures, Zeeshan leads strategic decision-making for venture capital investments, managing a substantial $500 million fund from seed to growth stage. He brings 15+ years of expertise in Venture Capital and as part of this role he serves on the Boards of various companies, spanning technology, energy, education, Artificial Intelligence and robotics.
He holds a MBA in Finance from University of Wales, a Certified Private Equity Specialist (CPES) designation from the International Academy of Business and Financial Management, and a CIFE in Islamic Finance from the Academy for International Modern Studies (AIMS) UK. Zeeshan’s commitment to professional development is evident in his affiliation with the GCC Board Directors Institute (GCC BDI) as a Member and his role as a Judge and Mentor at in several platforms in entrepreneurial eco-system.
He joined Democrance Board on Q4 2023.

Michael joined Democrance in January 2020, to head up Business Development across the Middle East and North Africa.

Prior to Democrance, Michael worked with multiple enterprise SaaS companies both in the UAE and Ireland. Michael is passionate about the power of technology and how it’s impacting people’s lives. Outside of work, he can be found in the bunker at many of Dubai’s golf clubs.

Siani has spent over 15 years working across Sub-Saharan Insurance markets and is currently serving as the head of Business Development for Sub-Saharan Africa. He is extremely passionate about unlocking key challenges faced by low to middle-income consumers and helping them to access affordable insurance solutions.

Before joining Democrance in 2022, he has worked for some of the most innovative insurance companies in the region. He has designed solutions for low-income customer segments, product development, marketing, distribution and partnership management, to ensure responsive customer-centric products for consumers.

Heroko leads Democrance’s business growth in the Asian insurance market. She collaborates closely with Insurers and Brokers, supporting them in building cutting-edge insurance distribution channels. With expertise spanning traditional insurance, InsurTech startups, and management consulting, she drives large-scale digital transformations and innovative business designs.

Heroko is a qualified actuary (Fellow of the Society of Actuaries) with an MBA from Columbia Business School in New York. Outside work, she’s an avid traveler exploring the world with friends and family. She’s also passionate about MMA, practicing Muay Thai alongside her family.

Viviana Lannutti joined the company in March 2022 and wears several different hats in the firm. She is HR Manager, Operational Manager, Admin Head and the CEO’s Personal Assistant.

She comes with extensive insurance experience gained during her time at Lannutti Assicurazioni Spa, a family business she helped grow in her home country Italy. In addition to that, she spent 10 years in Paris managing a team of 30+ employees leading Flagships retail stores and handling operations end to end.

Her multi-tasking expertise and ability to adapt make her a brilliant fit for different levels of our business.

Since joining the Democrance team in 2019, Aysha has overseen numerous product implementations that have aided in driving the company’s mission to make insurance products accessible to all within the changing digital landscape.

Aysha has over 9 years of sales and customer success experience within the software and e-commerce industry, including multinational organizations such as Meltwater.

Raised in the UAE, Aysha holds a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Management from Murdoch University.

In 2023 her responsibilities shifted complitely towards Product !

With 9 years of experience in project management and customer success fields at multinational IT organizations like OBS and Microsoft, Youstina joined Democrance in 2021 bringing in her CS knowledge and starting her path in insurtech.

Her role is to ensure our customers’ partnerships with Democrance are a success, from onboarding through to identifying needs and overseeing digitization projects.

Youstina is Egyptian and she holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communications Engineering from the German University in Cairo.

In 2023 She's evolved into the role of Customer Success Director !

Passionate about digital transformation and data, Afaf’s focus is to build a long-term relationship with our customers by delivering end-to-end projects and solutions to active users of our products.

Prior to Democrance, Afaf worked as a Senior Project Manager and Senior Business Analyst in the banking and insurance industry in France and the UAE at AXA, Societe Generale. She also helped UAE government entities to design and implement multiple digitization strategies.

Afaf holds a Master’s degree in International Business from ESG Paris and an MSc in Management and Consulting of Information Systems from ESGI Paris.

A PMP-certified Project Manager with 11+ years of experience, Naba joined Democrance in 2022 as a Customer Success Manager.

She brings with her over 5 years of experience as a Customer Success Manager from her last position and specializes in service delivery, client management, solution creation, rollout and trackable adoption.

Naba did her Bachelor’s at Rutgers University, USA in Computer Science and Psychology and moved to Dubai 14 years ago.

With over a decade of experience in the Middle East, Maryna is a highly skilled professional known for her exceptional track record in delivering cloud-based solutions that help clients achieve their desired outcomes.

Specializing in the SaaS industry, Maryna has successfully led numerous digital transformation projects across diverse sectors and regions, with a particular focus on emerging markets.

Her key strengths include account management, consulting, and project management.

With over 10 years of experience in the Middle East and the Americas, Waled possess a proven tract record overseeing project delivery, product development and management, customer success management, and client service engagement within digital collaboration, public sector, security and monitoring, and SaaS industries.

Waled is a bilingual Arabic and English speaking native who has received his Master’s degree from the University of Maryland, USA in Information technology and has joined Democrance in 2023.

With over 6 years of experience in Europe, Florian has been responsible for project management, strategy management and customer success management in various multinational conglomerates, as well as startups based out of Europe.

He has a background in FinTech, Cybersecurity and Supply chain management. Florian is trilingual, speaking English, German and Hungarian.

He received his Master’s degree from ESCP Business school in Strategy & Digital Business and joined Democrance end in Q3 - 2023.

With over 9 years of experience in Accounting and Finance, Nausheen is a Finance Manager with valuable skills gained through working in diverse financial positions within multiple industries in the UK, Mauritius, and UAE.
Nausheen has solely managed several projects within the FinTech, Oil & Gas, Health Care, Construction, Financial Services and Technology industries from different jurisdictions.

Prior to joining Democrance in 2023, she helped other companies design and implement accounting systems from scratch with procedures and policies to be implemented within the company and the group in order to stay compliant and ensure the smooth running of the businesses.

Nausheen is from Mauritius, and she holds a bachelor’s degree in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University together with an Advanced Diploma in Accounting and Business from ACCA.

Akira is the former Head of Business Development in Asia and now is in charge of Operations at Democrance.

He has over 7 years of experience in Insurtech and fintech, especially in emerging markets.

Prior to joining Democrance, he was the country manager of BIMA Bangladesh, managing the micro-insurance operation.

He is a Japanese national and earned an MBA from INSEAD. He's passionate about emerging markets, professional coaching and trekking mountains.