Board of Directors

Alessandro is an IT entrepreneur with 30 years of expertise in working for large multinational corporations across 6 countries.

He has held IT Sales and Executive Management positions at global companies such as Canon, Xerox, and Mondadori Digital. Until 2003, he also led his own business, IdeaPc, in his native country.

In 2011, he joined Dell where he led the EdTech Business Development Team. In 2013, he was recruited by Certiport, a Pearson VUE business, as part of the EMEA Team and significantly contributed to the growth of the international business.

In 2018, he started an outsourcing IT Engineering business with Ana Macri, focusing on developing complex learning solutions for the EdTech industry.

Since 2019, he has been working as a freelance consultant for several global organizations including Code Institute and the Leading Learning Partners Association, where he has been in charge of global sales and business development operations.

He founded Knowledge Pillars in March 2020 together with his wife, Ana Macri, and they were later joined by Aaron Osmond.

Alessandro is fluent in four languages and holds dual citizenship, dividing his time between Switzerland, England, and the United States of America with his wife and four children.

Ana has over 14 years of experience in Software Development and Product Management. She graduated in Computer Science at the Politehnica of Timisoara (RO) in 2009 and since then she has been working as Software Engineer for several global corporations such as Accenture, Informa, and Thomson Reuters, where she became a Scrum Master and an Agile Coach.

In 2018, she started an outsourcing IT Engineering business with Alessandro Macri, focusing on developing complex learning solutions for the EdTech industries.

Since 2018 she has been working as Head of Development and Technical Delivery Manager at the Leading Learning Partners Association, a top global IT training provider, where she developed the online learning platform Azure Academy (now Skills Academy), in cooperation with Microsoft.

Ana is fluent in four languages and holds dual citizenship, dividing her life between Switzerland, England and the United States of America with her husband and four children.

Aaron Osmond sits in the board at Knowledge Pillars as co-founder and advisor. He brings over 30 years of IT Vendor Certification industry experience. He provides our team with regular strategic guidance and insights as needed to help build our business. 

Prior to Amazon, Aaron served as the Vice President and General Manager of the Certiport division of Pearson from 2012 to 2020 where he led their global career and technical education business unit. From 1991 to 2012, Aaron established his career in key leadership roles in the IT education industry at companies such as WordPerfect, Novell, and Microsoft. During this time Aaron also served for 5 years as CEO of Wealth Rock, a large financial education company based in Utah.

From March 2011 until December 2015, Aaron served as a Utah State Senator representing District 10 (South Jordan, Herriman, and West Jordan). During his term, he served on the Public Education Appropriations Committees, the Higher Education Appropriations Committee, and as Chair of the Public Education Standing Committee, and then as Chair of the Economic Development & Workforce Committee.

In July of 2020, Aaron was appointed by the Governor of Utah as Vice-Chair of the Utah Board of Higher Education, where he works with other board members to oversee the state’s 16 higher education institutions. Aaron is a passionate advocate of the importance of access to degree and technical education programs for students in both our public and higher education systems in the state of Utah. 

Between 2020 and 2023, Aaron served as the US Leader of the Education to Workforce team in the Global Public Sector division of Amazon Web Services. In this role, he consulted with state government leaders to help them implement workforce readiness programs that will prepare their students for future cloud careers.

Bryan is a veteran of business development, boasting over 30 years of experience in market development, product positioning, and sales.

An IT enthusiast, he has worked at global corporations such as Black&Decker and Certiport, a Pearson VUE business, where he was ultimately VP Sales Europe and, later, VP Strategic Accounts.

Bryan looks after the strategical and operational aspects of the K12 and Higher Education business segments.

Dr. Jill Ranucci is a College and Career Readiness advocate and has an extensive background in Career and Technical Education (CTE) as an administrator and teacher. Dr. Ranucci has held district positions in CTE in Arizona and Texas. Additionally, Dr. Ranucci taught for 7 years at the University of Northern Iowa and 3 years at the University of Akron. Recently, Dr. Ranucci has been consulting for several CTE companies to help them align resources to state standards, state initiatives, industry recognized credentials/certifications and academic integration. Jill believes every CTE course must provide premiere curricular resources to promote successful student outcomes.

Dr. Ranucci earned a Ph.D. in Teaching and Teacher Education/Curriculum and Instruction and Education Leadership from the University of Arizona, a MS in Sport Physiology and a BS in Education with K-12 certifications in several core and CTE content areas.

Dr. Ranucci speaks and publishes nationally for educational organizations and has been part of national CTE committees for school reform to endorse college and career readiness curricular initiatives. Through her leadership, campuses have benefited from rigorous and academically integrated CTE courses.