A graduate in Business Economics from Milan's Bocconi University, he is the pioneer of Social Housing in Italy, with a pilot project in Fondazione Cariplo, from which the Fondazione Housing Sociale (promoted by Fondazione Cariplo, the Lombardy Region and ANCI) was born in 2004, where he was Director and Managing Director until June 2010.

With Fondazione Housing Sociale, Urbani initiated a number of projects in a sector that Fondazione Cariplo has always considered strategic.

Although social housing is an activity that involves real estate operations, it has always been interpreted by Fondazione Cariplo as the means to provides access to housing for families in places where the activation and reactivation of human relationships is key. As to say that housing is at the heart of the community and urban regeneration, too, must focus on sustainability and inclusion.  

Since June 2012, he has served as Co-General Manager of CDP Investimenti Sgr, an asset management company dedicated to managing the FIA, a national fund of approximately 2 billion euros, a key player in the integrated system of funds dedicated to Social Housing (SIF), overseeing the development of 41 projects throughout Italy.

He is a board member of REDO SGR Società Benefit, in which Fondazione Cariplo, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Banca Intesa Sanpaolo, and Investire SGR are stakeholders. The company is active in the social housing sector, university housing, and urban regeneration in Lombardy and the Piedemont provinces of Novara and Verbano Cusio Ossola.

Previously,  he had worked at ABN AMRO Corporate Finance (2000-2004), Deloitte&Touche Corporate Finance (1999-2000), and at Bocconi University—as a scholarship holder at the Institute of Business Economics—and Bankers Trust International.