Meet Our Pitch Perfect Judges

There are only 4 days left until the the emerging entrepreneur startup showcase of the year! After weeks of preparation, we’re thrilled to witness each team pitch perfect for a chance to win up to $10,000 towards their business. Meanwhile, we invite you to get to know our esteemed panel of judges who will select the winners of this friendly competition; Patrick Munis Founder of NewWave Holdings, LLC., Cindi Mitchell Chief Talent Finder and CEO at Blue Faire, Darrel Frater VC at Visible Hands and Nneka Ukpai Chief Strategy Officer at Wellthi.

Patrick Munis

Founder, NewWave Holdings, LLC.

Patrick Munis is the visionary leader of NewWave Holdings, a dynamic portfolio of IT companies changing the relationship between technology, information and humans in the healthcare industry.

As founder of NewWave Telecom and Technologies, Inc. which has provided over 17 years of successful engineering and design to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Patrick also launched and incubated Onyx Technology, LLC, to build the state-of-the-art infrastructure for health data interoperability; and iQuartic, to harness the power of AI and natural language processing to enable value-based healthcare delivery. He has also established NewWave India to support the development of engineering talent necessary to meet this revolutionary moment of change in health IT.

Driven by his vision to have technology empower people, Munis works to empower creative teams of technologists that ‘Solve for the Greater Good.’ A former Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and SBA Small Business Person of the Year for the D.C. Metro area, Munis leads by example, regularly observing, “The best innovation comes from diversity of opinion.”

When he’s not trying to change the world through tech innovation, Munis enjoys spending time with his wife, supporting his children through sports and other pursuits, studying soccer matches and listening to podcasts.

Cindi Mitchell

Chief Talent Finder and CEO at Blue Faire

Cindi Mitchell is the CEO and Co-Founder of Blue Flaire, LLC, an IT Recruitment and Staffing Firm with a client-first approach. Her company serves many sectors including information technology, healthcare technology, government contracting, and small business enterprises.

Cindi is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management and is involved with various community and professional organizations including Howard County Human Resources Society, in which she served as a Past President. Cindi’s newest initiative is bringing Young Women of Color who are studying in the technology and engineering fields to discuss and learn from local technology leaders on how to prepare for their upcoming careers.

During her free time, you may find her playing and mixing music at local restaurants, hosting corporate events and other celebrations.

Darrel Frater

VC at Visible Hands | Investment Analyst at Comcast | Founder of TheClub App

Darrel was most recently a Venture Fellow at Score 3 Ventures where he assisted underrepresented founders in raising their first rounds of funding. Through Score 3 Darrel was able to help founders raise over $1M in startup capital and mentored over 60 founders since joining in 2019. While assisting founders Darrel also founded his own company, TheClub, a livestream monetization platform for DJs. He is a recent MBA graduate from The College of New Jersey where he studied strategy, innovation, and leadership.

He spends his free time serving at his church, working on side businesses, watching anime, and playing Super Smash Brothers.

Nneka Ukpai

Wellthi Chief Strategy Officer

Nneka is the Chief Strategy Officer at fintech Wellthi and leads CEO Strategy at pre-IPO tech unicorn Better.com. Nneka’s roles span all functions–from capital raises to crisis management, risk mitigation, internal investigations, litigation and regulatory strategy, and financial inclusion. In addition to being a startup founder, Nneka has invested in 30 startup companies with dynamic founders at the helm.

Nneka is a proud graduate of Howard University and Harvard Law School, where she currently serves on the distinguished teaching faculty of Harvard’s Trial Advocacy Workshop. Outside of lawyering, Nneka is a 2x tech founder, serial angel investor, and advisor to venture capital funds and other tech startups. Nneka also serves on the Boards of two non-profit organizations focused on mentorship, professional development, and diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal profession.

Are you registered for Pitch Perfect yet? We invite all family, friends, colleagues, students and budding entrepreneurs to join us this Saturday, November 13th @ 12pm EST for a front row seat to the Pitch Perfect 2021 event. You don’t want to miss out!