Governing bodies — Officers

Who answers
for what.

A serious association can also be judged by this: knowing who decides, for how long and before whom. Here are the governing bodies of AssoUmanoidi, as provided for by the Statute, and the people who sit on them.

Term 2026–2029

Executive Board

Governs the association between one assembly and the next: direction, budget, admission of members, affiliation of territorial bodies. Nine Board Members elected by the Assembly, three representing each Chamber; it elects a President and a Vice President from among its members.

  • Portrait of Vito Petrocelli
    President

    Vito Petrocelli

    A geologist by training, he served as a Senator of the Italian Republic from 2013 to 2022. During his parliamentary term he held senior positions, including those of Senate floor secretary and parliamentary group leader, and was then elected Chair of the Senate’s 3rd Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Emigration, a role he held from June 2018 to May 2022. A record of his parliamentary activity is available on the website of the Senate of the Republic. He currently chairs the Istituto Italia-BRICS, a body committed to promoting dialogue and relations with the countries of the emerging bloc, and is Editorial Director of the online news outlet L’AntiDiplomatico. He leads AssoUmanoidi with the aim of building a hub for reflection, representation and advocacy on the rights of humanoids endowed with anthropomorphic artificial intelligence, promoting a coexistence founded on rights, duties, responsibilities and mutual recognition, in dialogue with institutions, research and industry.

  • Portrait of Massimo Morgante
    Vice President

    Massimo Morgante

    A serial entrepreneur and expert in digital innovation, he holds a Master’s in Communication and Multimedia Journalism. One of the pioneers in Italy in applying artificial intelligence to business processes, he founded an AI Lab dedicated to experimenting with and developing innovative technological solutions. Formerly CMO of Innereo, he is the founder of Speaqi, a digital infrastructure that combines artificial intelligence, multilingual tourist guides and AI assistants to enhance destinations, local areas and cultural heritage. At AssoUmanoidi he contributes to strategic development, fostering relations with institutions, businesses and organizations and taking part in trade fairs and events on innovation. He encourages dialogue between business, research and civil society on the ethical challenges of the future coexistence of human beings and intelligent systems.

  • Portrait of Fabio Morotti
    Board Member

    Fabio Morotti

    A writer and essayist, he holds a PhD in Visual and Media Studies from IULM University in Milan. His academic and professional work rests on a multidisciplinary approach that draws on anthropological categories to analyse contemporary visual culture. His fields of study include cinema, generative AI, intangible cultural heritage, Cambodian culture, aerial vision and travel literature. He is the author of novels and of a monograph on the Cambodian performing arts. At AssoUmanoidi he has been delegated responsibility for audiovisual and cultural matters and is Senior Deputy Editor of Humanoide, the Association’s official magazine, contributing to the promotion of the culture and imagery of the humanoid through art, communication and the symbol of contact between human being and robot.

  • Portrait of Emanuele Galloni
    Board Member

    Emanuele Galloni

    A producer and author, he is the founder and director of Connemaris Media, a Calabria-based production and distribution company that develops AI-based tools to identify and develop intellectual properties from cultures around the world. With Connemaris Media he created, wrote and produced the docuseries Matriçë Arbëreshe, directed by Luca Vullo and broadcast on RaiPlay and Rai Tre Calabria, and he is currently making Triskelion, a documentary project devoted to the minority cultures and languages of Europe. He is one of the founders of MyCulture, a platform dedicated to minority and indigenous languages.

    Read the full biography

    His earlier work includes the series Red Zones for Sky Italia, distributed on VOD platforms in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and the Italian segment of The World Says No to War, of which he is one of the producers, screened in a retrospective at MoMA in New York. For more than fifteen years, through the company Videoplugger, he represented Rai Trade and Rai Com in the United Kingdom: during that period he brought Il Commissario Montalbano to the BBC and to other British and international platforms, and distributed productions in Celtic and minority languages worldwide.

    He graduated with a first-class degree (110/110 cum laude) in Political Science, specialising in international and European Community studies, from LUISS in Rome, with a thesis on multimedia products and the music video. He then trained in film at South Thames College and at Raindance in London. Since 2005 he has been involved in teaching, both on postgraduate courses and with younger students, in Italy and the United Kingdom: he teaches production, multimedia products, franchises and scripted formats.

    At AssoUmanoidi he has been delegated responsibility for audiovisual and cultural matters: he oversees the documentation and narration of the issues the association works on and promotes an open exchange with the different positions, including critical ones, raised by the debate on humanoids.

  • Portrait of Gabriele Gobbo
    Board Member

    Gabriele Gobbo

    A digitologist, author and popular communicator of digital culture, he is a consultant and lecturer in digital communication. He has worked for more than thirty years across media, technology and strategy, and has coined neologisms for the digital age, including digitalogia (digitalogy), digitologo (digitologist), Metaprompting strategico (Strategic Metaprompting) and sentimento sintetico (synthetic sentiment). He is the author of essays. He developed Strategic Metaprompting with the 3C Protocol (Compare, Challenge, Curate). He directs the PioneerAIO Research Lab. He is Vice-President and co-founder of the Digital Security Festival and founded Italiamac. He has taught at the Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele and served as a juror for the digital and new technologies category of the Premio eccellenza formazione (PEF), promoted by the Associazione Italiana Formatori. At AssoUmanoidi he is responsible for corporate communication and is Deputy Editor of Humanoide, holding the portfolio for communication and special projects. His personal website is gabrielegobbo.it.

  • Portrait of Stefano Colombara
    Board Member

    Stefano Colombara

    He holds degrees in History and in Education Sciences. He has been an administrative officer at the Emilia-Romagna Region in Bologna since February 2014. He previously worked in brand and communication strategy as project leader for the “Liberate le aragoste” network. At AssoUmanoidi he is responsible for training activities and for the association’s communication, and complements the Executive Board with management, coordination and organizational skills, focused on structuring training programmes on the Statute, the Code of Ethics, the Charter of Rights and Duties of Humanoids and the Regulations of the Online Humanoid Registry.

Board of Arbitrators

Guarantee body: rules without appeal on disputes between members and bodies, and on breaches of the Code of Ethics and the Charter. The office is incompatible with any other office in the association.

  • Chair of the boardFull member
    To be appointed
  • ArbitratorFull member
    To be appointed
  • ArbitratorFull member
    To be appointed
  • Alternate arbitratorAlternate
    To be appointed
  • Alternate arbitratorAlternate
    To be appointed

Scientific Council

Advisory body: prepares the association’s positions on ethics, law, robotics and social impact. Members need not be association members; it is chaired by the Scientific Director, appointed by the Executive Board.

  • Portrait of Marco Marsili
    Scientific Director

    Marco Marsili

    A researcher, analyst, writer and university lecturer, he is Scientific Director of AssoUmanoidi and Editor-in-Chief (legal editor) of Humanoide. A freelance journalist registered with the Italian Order of Journalists, he has held senior editorial roles at news outlets, press agencies, periodicals and book series, and was a professor at the University of Insubria in Varese; he was also scientific and academic coordinator of the Master’s in Communication and Multimedia Journalism. He was a researcher and assistant professor at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and is currently a researcher at CEI-Iscte, the Centre for International Studies of ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa.

    Read the full biography

    He graduated cum laude in Communication and Society (institutional communication track) from the Università degli Studi di Milano, and in Political Science and in International Relations from the Università degli studi Niccolò Cusano in Rome. He holds a PhD in History, Security and Defence Studies from ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, two postgraduate diplomas, in History, Security and Defence Studies (ISCTE) and in Armed Conflicts and Human Rights (Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra and Military University Institute, Portugal), and a diploma in Psychological Operations Planning from the Military University Institute.

    His research covers international relations, security and defense, international humanitarian law, terrorism and cognitive warfare. He has been a member of NATO STO research groups on information and cognitive warfare. He is the author of dozens of scientific articles published in leading international journals and of a dozen monographs, some of which have been translated into other languages; he sits on the scientific and organizing committees of international conferences, has given dozens of presentations at international scientific events and is a member of the editorial and scientific boards of journals. He is a principal investigator and member of research groups of the NATO STO, the Science and Technology Organization of the Atlantic Alliance; he has collaborated with the Centre for High Defence Studies (CASD)/IRADe and with NATO’s DIANA. He received the European Commission’s Seal of Excellence in 2021 and in 2026. His personal website is marcomarsili.it.

  • Member
    To be appointed
  • Member
    To be appointed
  • Member
    To be appointed
  • Member
    To be appointed

The Members’ Assembly remains the sovereign body: it elects the Executive Board and the Board of Arbitrators, approves the budget and amends the Statute (Art. 15).

The nine Board Members are elected three for each Chamber — Individuals, Humanoids, Organizations — so that none of the three can decide alone (Art. 16).