This group of experienced leaders has a combined over 300 years in educational experience with nearly a third of that - 84 years! - as School Heads. On average, they have served as Heads of School for 17 years in their respective careers leading small, large, rural, urban, single sex, co-ed, day, boarding and international schools.

Alan Whyte

Alan is a semi-retired human resources lawyer (for management) who also conducts a human resources consulting practice.

He is enthusiastic about assisting CAIS schools, Boards and senior leadership teams with (non-legal) human resources and governance issues and challenges, building on his 13 years of experience on the Board of Albert College (4 as Chair) and 11 years on the CIS Ontario Board (3 as Chair). He also sits as a regional Advisor on the CAIS Board. Read More

Andrew Whiteley

Andrew is a corporate director of Global Payments Canada Financial Corporation and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee. His RSGC career as Assistant Head spanned 15 years, following a 19 year career as Director of Finance & Operations (14 years) and as Chief Accountant (5 years) at Ridley College. He obtained his designation as a Certified General Accountant (CGA) in 1981 while employed by the Chartered Accounting firm, Crawford Smith & Swallow in Niagara Falls. Read more

Annette Whiteley

Annette was born in Dublin, Ireland and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. Annette has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from University College, Dublin and trained as a Chartered Accountant in London, England. After moving to Toronto, Annette started her school career at Victoria College as Assistant to the Chief Accountant. She then served for 10 years as Controller of Havergal College and 14 years as Chief Financial Officer of The York School. As the first CFO of The York School, Annette was instrumental in the development of the business office and school policies and procedures. Read more

George Rutherford

Since 2013, George has been working as a CAIServices consultant with the Boards, Heads and Leadership Teams of CAIS schools across Canada. The focus of this work has been primarily on governance, leadership, mission development and strategic planning. Read more

Jo-Anne Kingstone

Jo-Anne Kingstone started her career in independent schools thirty-five years ago as a teaching intern at Ridley College, St. Catharines. In the years between that first year and today, she has worked in a wide variety of teaching and learning environments, firstly assuming all the traditional roles of a boarding school “triple-threat” teacher before taking on expanding leadership roles in schools and working at the association level. Throughout her career she has dedicated herself to education and to the ideals and practicalities of living and working in communities such as those created by independent schools. Read more

Patricia Parisi

Patricia Parisi completed her undergraduate degrees in history, economics and education at York University, and her Masters of Social Sciences at Syracuse University. At the University of Connecticut she earned a Sixth Year Degree as an Educational Specialist (Gifted and Talented).

In her long association with Canadian independent schools, Pat taught social science for 14 years at Havergal College in Toronto, where she was head of department. She then accepted a position as an administrator with the North York Board of Education and was with that public school board for five years. Read more

Paul W. Bennett

Paul W. Bennett, Ed.D. (OISE/Toronto) is Founding Director of Schoolhouse Consulting in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Since retiring as a School Head in June 2009, Paul has been an Adjunct Professor of Education at Saint Mary’s University and provided independent education consulting services, advice and counsel to many different clients. His consulting services specialties are policy research, board governance, school management, program assessment, and CEO/School Head evaluation.

Dr. Bennett conducts education policy research and has produced more than a dozen major policy papers for the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS), the Northern Policy Institute (NPI), the Society for Quality Education (SQE), Canadian Accredited Independent Schools (CAIS), and Thinkwell Research. Read more

Bob Snowden

Bob Snowden retired in 2017 after 22 years as Head of St. Michaels University School (SMUS) in Victoria, BC. Prior to that, he worked at Ridley College for 10 years, where his roles included Assistant Head and Acting Head. His educational career started with ten years at Appleby College where his roles included Head of English and Boarding housemaster. He graduated from University of Toronto with a degree in English and Philosophy.

During his time as Head at SMUS he implemented several Strategic Plans, increasing financial aid from $200,000 to $2.2 million, renewing the academic program, and overseeing $45 million worth of construction, most of it fundraised. Read more

Simon Bruce-Lockhart

Simon Bruce-Lockhart retired in June 2015 after a 42-year career in Canadian independent schools, 26 years of which were spent as a Head of School (Albert College, Shawnigan Lake School, Mulgrave School and Glenlyon Norfolk School). Prior to becoming a Head, he was the Director of Admissions and of Advancement at Lakefield College School, and a teacher and house director at Ridley College. During his career, Simon served on the executives of the Canadian Association of Independent Schools, the Federation of Independent School Associations of British Columbia and the Round Square. Read more