Francesco De Biase, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of THELAYMA

Francesco De Biase

Chief Executive Officer & Chairman, THELAYMA — a division of Xerendipity Corporation Ltd.

Last updated: 29 July 2026

Francesco De Biase is the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of THELAYMA, the dual-capital analysis and advisory house within Xerendipity Corporation Ltd. An engineer by training, with more than three decades leading international luxury enterprises, he is the architect of the DIOGENE methodology THELAYMA applies to value human and financial capital — including the assessment of a footballer as an intangible asset.

What Francesco leads at THELAYMA

Francesco owns THELAYMA’s financial-capital lens: the valuation of intangible assets, the return-on-investment reading of human capital, and the assessment of footballers, squads and clubs as assets rather than line-item transfer fees. He leads the THELAYMA Aestima football practice and authors its analysis. His remit is the disciplined question that runs through the whole house — what is this capital genuinely worth, and to whom?

Background

Francesco is an engineer by formation whose career has been spent building and running enterprises at the top of the international luxury market. He spent five years in the executive team of luxury resorts in the Maldives and held Senior General Manager roles in five-star hotels across Florida, the Maldives and Nigeria. In 2008 he co-founded Circle of Lords, the London-based luxury tour operator and concierge, as Managing Director and board member. He is a Founding Partner and Chief Executive of Xerendipity Corporation Ltd., the discreet advisory group of which THELAYMA is a division.

The DIOGENE methodology

The foundation of Francesco’s work at THELAYMA is DIOGENE — the proprietary analytical framework he developed to measure and value a capital, whether human or financial. Rather than rely on headline market prices, DIOGENE reads an asset for what it is worth in its actual environment: a person, a footballer or a whole squad understood as human capital with a value the balance sheet does not record. THELAYMA publishes the framework openly and its readings transparently; the proprietary weightings remain its own.

Areas of expertise

Intangible-asset valuation · human-capital valuation · football player human-capital value and ROI · squad and club valuation · return-on-investment analysis · the DIOGENE valuation methodology.

Elsewhere

Francesco writes on behalf of THELAYMA under his own name. Every article he signs reflects his own review and judgement.