Leadership that is present. Care that is personal.
CCI is led by people with deep experience and a genuinely personal stake in the school. Our Head of Schools and Director of Schools each bring more than 30 years of private-school leadership, while our Director knows CCI as both its leader and one of its graduates.
CCI also remains family-run in the truest sense. Director Davide D’Alessandro is the son of our founder, and he leads the school alongside his wife, Cheryl, our Director of Communications and the primary point of contact for many families. Their own children attend CCI schools, so the standards they set for other families are the standards they expect for their own.
01Deep educational experienceSenior academic leaders each bring more than 30 years of private-school leadership.
02CCI from every angleOur Director is the founder’s son, a CCI graduate and now a CCI parent.
03A direct family partnershipFamilies remain closely connected to the people responsible for their child’s experience.
Meet CCI’s leadership
Experienced leadership. Personal responsibility.
Select a tab to learn more about the people who lead CCI and the experience they bring to the school.
Mr. Davide D’Alessandro is the corporate director and leader of the Garda School and Canadian College Italy, where he applies his diverse business background and passion for educational excellence.
Born in Canada, Mr. D’Alessandro was a student of a number of international private schools in Canada and Europe, before his mother, Mrs. Marisa Di Carlo D'Alessandro, launched CCI, in 1995.
After graduating CCI in 1997, Mr. D’Alessandro earned his Bachelors at the University of Toronto and went on to a career in film production & finance. He also developed his keen entrepreneurial spirit helping to manage a variety of family businesses along the way.
After earning his M.B.A. at the International University of Monaco, Mr. D’Alessandro spent years honing a deep understanding of business development in the world of start-up ventures, real estate development and mortgages.
Passionate about food, Mr. D’Alessandro also trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. It is his great pleasure to be a personal chef to his loving wife and two children, who also attend The Garda School.
Throughout her impressive 35 years in education, Ms. Tesoro has held many key leadership roles. Most recently, Ms. Tesoro was the long-serving Head of School at an independent university preparatory school in Ontario.
Inspired to empower others and produce positive changes for the broader community, Ms. Tesoro became a teacher in 1984. She soon transitioned to Guidance Counsellor, then becoming Department Head of Guidance.
She was later appointed founding principal of the first alternative school in Dufferin-Peel, while also launching the first high school classrooms within a college at Sheridan College. Ms. Tesoro was also instrumental at the Ontario Ministry of Education developing and supporting the implementation of strategic policies as an Education Officer.
Ms. Tesoro's innovative and collaborative leadership style has earned her the deep respect of her colleagues. Students love her for her compassionate commitment to empowering each and every one to reach their fullest potential.
“When students are given the chance to thrive in an environment that encourages curiosity and taking intellectual risks, they feel empowered to seize opportunities and make the most of their learning journey,” said Ms. Tesoro.
“It’s about inspiring confidence, deep inquiry, personal growth and a healthy balance through a highly personalized learning environment.”
A world traveler herself, Ms. Tesoro loves Italy, and has strong connections to the country. She is also an advocate for CCI’s philosophy of broadening one's horizons through cultural immersion.
“CCI sets bright and curious students on a course of limitless possibilities,” said Ms. Tesoro.
“This truly sets CCI graduates apart, as they take these experiences and thinking skills with them to university and in all their future endeavors.”
Mr. Frank Scarcelli is dedicated to creating impactful learning environments for students to thrive academically, socially, and personally.
With over four decades of experience in education both domestically and internationally, he exemplifies leadership, innovation, and excellence.
Holding a Master of Education in School Administration and specializations in Special Education and Career Counselling, Mr. Scarcelli is a member in good standing with the Ontario College of Teachers.
His leadership spans multiple curriculums including Ontario, IGCSE, International Baccalaureate, and American. As Head of School in the UAE, he led significant improvements in infrastructure and academics, overseeing four governmental inspections, two accreditations, and increased enrollment.
Mr. Scarcelli also served as an Academic Advisor to the Abu Dhabi Educational Council, guiding principals in implementing international curricula. As Founding Principal of St. Michael Catholic School in Bolton, Ontario he established a lasting culture of excellence. His tenure transformed underperforming schools and expanded IB programs.
Mr. Scarcelli's fourteen years as Vice Principal within the Dufferin Peel Catholic School Board, including IB programs, honed his strategic leadership.
An outdoor enthusiast, Mr. Scarcelli and his wife have hiked Mount Kilimanjaro and Everest Base Camp, reflecting his commitment to physical fitness and well-being.
The concept of CCI was born in 1990 when my family moved to the South of France.
At the time, my three children were very young and I had taken a leave from my teaching career because my husband and I wanted to give our children a European experience for a few years. It was the tremendous change that I saw in their development that inspired me to open a Canadian school in Italy.
After teaching modern languages for sixteen years with the North York Board of Education in Ontario and accompanying students on school trips to Italy, I realized that nothing could compare with the kind of education that one receives while living away from home in a culturally rich environment and within a caring community of people. Up until that time I had received all my formal education in Canada. I graduated from the University of Toronto, Innis College, in 1973 with a Degree in Physical and Health Education and a minor in Modern Languages. I continued to Teachers College at OISE - The University of Toronto in 1974 and while I was in France I completed an MBA degree from The University of Southern Europe (now IUM) with a specialization in Finance. All of my children would eventually graduate from CCI and follow in my footsteps to study at U of T at Innis College for their first degrees and international institutions for their further degrees.
Students have told me through the years that one of the most important aspects of CCI is residence living. This accords them the opportunity to develop independence while at the same time forging life long friends and preparing them for future university life. Naturally, the other essential element is the guidance and expertise of dedicated and caring teachers. Vital also to the Italian cultural experience students take part in unforgettable school trips; they visit the most important cities of Italy as well as other European destinations as optional trips. Besides furnishing beautiful memories, the travel grants them exposure to some of the world’s most precious artwork and these trips develop in the student a worldliness and maturity well beyond their years.
The emotional impact of attending CCI follows the pattern of a lifelong series of separation from family and subsequent gain. We realize that in the course of our lives we leave, we are left, and we let go of many things we’ve come to love. Although painful at times, these patterns are the source of much of our growth. We cannot become separate, responsible, reflective people without these tribulations of leaving and letting go. The maturity that develops in young people attending CCI derives a great deal from this experience of separation.
I would like to quote the reflection of one of our students about her year at CCI.
“Because of CCI, I now know that the things that scare us the most, the things that require the biggest leap of faith are the most rewarding and unforgettable.”
In closing I would like to leave you with a thought on this process of risk taking, recently attributed to Alan Alda.
“You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can't get there by bus, only by hard work and risk, and by not quite knowing what you're doing, but what you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover will be yourself."
Our school motto Perge et Valeas was chosen because it reflects the spirit of this quote. It translates from Latin into “If you proceed you shall succeed”
Cheryl has always believed that poor communication is at the root of many human foibles. Her role at CCI is to make sure families know what is happening, receive straight answers and never feel they are navigating boarding-school life from another country alone.
She joined CCI in 2021 after more than two decades in journalism, including 13 years with CBC, Canada’s national public broadcaster, and earlier years at Citytv and CP24 in Toronto. Her career taught her how to ask the right questions, find the missing information and explain complicated things clearly.
For Cheryl, CCI is also family life.
She and her husband, Director Davide D’Alessandro, are raising their two children within CCI’s schools and sharing with them the same international education and life in Italy they offer other families.
She approaches her work as both a communications professional and a mother, with a deep personal commitment to listening, helping and staying with a problem until it is solved.
