We’re excited to unveil the lineup of judges for tomorrow’s Pitch & Pick competition! Representing a few of our amazing partners in our Genesis community, each judge brings a unique industry background and passion for entrepreneurship. This year’s five judges are:

Kevin Peters - Chief Operating Officer - Hickman Automotive Group
Kevin is an innovative and initiative-taking executive leader who thrives in driving dynamic high growth environments where leadership involves strategic judgement and results driven decision-making. With an experimental mindset and a passion for enhancing teamwork and collaboration, Kevin believes in the power of people and their ability to positively impact not only the organizations they work for, but the communities they serve. Kevin is currently the Chief Operating Officer for Hickman Automotive Group, responsible for approximately 450 employees located in twelve branches that represent multiple automotive brands and markets. His more than 15 years of executive management experience includes roles within the communications, engineering, oil and gas, tech and automotive industries that include private, public, and family-owned businesses. Kevin holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree (Political Science Major, Business Minor), a certificate in Business Administration and is a holder of the Institute of Corporate Directors Director designation.

Sarah Nolan, Account Manager - TD Commercial Banking
Sarah graduated St. Francis Xavier University in 2016 with a major in accounting and a minor in political science. Post-graduation she began her career with the TD Bank Group and began working with both personal and business clients. It was here she realized her true passion was working with entrepreneurs. In 2019 Sarah joined the TD Business Bank as an Account Manager and she now manages a large portfolio of entrepreneurs across all industries; however, her true passion is working with Non-profits, Tech companies and Women Owned Businesses. In her free time, you can catch Sarah in a spin class, studying for her MBA in Innovative Leadership or walking her two dogs Harvey (a golden doodle) and Winston (a west highland terrier).

Jenny Smith, President & Executive Creative Director - Ray Agency
With 25 years in the advertising and marketing business, Jenny is no stranger to creating internationally recognized, award-winning advertising. She’s ranked one of the top creatives in Canada, and is the region’s most decorated creative person, winning literally hundreds of creative gold and platinum national and international awards and accolades over the course of her career, including being inducted into Atlantic Business Magazine’s Top 50 CEO Hall of Fame in 2022. She has judged every ad show in Canada and has had the pleasure of sitting on international juries like Cannes and London International Awards. Jenny owns three businesses - she’s the president of Ray - an independent agency based in St. John’s, launched in 2013. She’s a partner in Ritual Edibles – a cannabis company geared towards women age 45+. And owner of Ray Properties – a commercial properties company just recently launched in 2020. Jenny lives in St. John’s with her husband, Steve, and their two teenagers, James (18) and Mary (17) and cat, Nacho Smith.

Karandeep Singh Dhillon, Founder & CEO, Meddai
Karan began his career in the elite Indian Space Research Organization program “NISAR - NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar mission”. He was the first founding member of the CV-ML team at Einsite (a US-based AI startup to track and improve productivity on Mining and Construction projects) and raised 1M$ during the seed round. He then led the AI research at Newspace Research, where he initiated and led several projects with Indian Airforce and US Airforce teams focused on machine learning and computer vision projects. During his last job, he was deputy manager and data analyst at JIO(the 3rd largest mobile network operator). Karan holds a Bachelor in Computer Science focused on AI from the University of Petroleum and a PGD in AI and ML from IIITB.

Terry Hudson, Digital Lead - Ray Agency
There are songs written about Terry. Those songs are written by Terry. One song at a time, they tell us more about a guy with a taste for cheap bourbon and expensive scotch. But what the songs don’t tell you is that Terry is a talented, award-winning web developer with over 20 years of experience working with clients like Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism, Tourism PEI, East Coast Music Awards, Atlantic Canada Airports Association and Whitecap Entertainment, just to name a few. When Terry’s not writing music, designing websites that have won international awards, or enjoying cheap bourbon (sometimes all at the same time), he designs and builds furniture, and chips away on his home renovation that’s scheduled to be finished in 2045.

Neala Kielley, Associate Lawyer - Cox & Palmer
Neala is an associate with Cox & Palmer in St. John’s, where she primarily practices in the areas of labour and employment law, administrative law, human rights law and litigation. She is also a member of Cox & Palmer’s Start-Ups Practice Group, which provides advice to emerging entrepreneurs. Neala began her legal career with Cox & Palmer in 2017 as a summer student and was called to the Newfoundland and Labrador Bar in February, 2020. Prior to receiving her Juris Doctor from Dalhousie University, Neala attended Memorial University, where she earned her Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) (Co-operative), with a focus in human resources. Outside the office, she volunteers with Big Brothers Big Sisters, and with Operation Entrepreneur (Prince’s Trust Canada), teaching military veterans business law basics to help them reintegrate into the workplace by starting their own business.

To watch the competition virtually, tune into our Youtube channel at 2:00pm NDT on Tuesday, August 2nd. To find out more about our Evolution program or to apply to our Fall cohort, visit our Evolution page.