Two Cardinal Mooney graduates – a musician and music producer, and veteran business development consultant – were honored at Mooney’s annual Distinguished Alumni Awards annual prayer service Feb. 1.
Honored was Michael Moritz, class of 2000, a Tony and Emmy award-winning Broadway and music producer. Also honored was Cheryl “CP” Perez, class of 1993, CEO of Cheryl C Perez Brands, a brand of companies including Cheryl C Perez Enterprises that provides consulting, coaching, and online training programs to entrepreneurs and business owners.
Nick Beyer, Mooney president and principal, introduced the honorees in the school auditorium.
Moritz, who graduated from Struthers St. Nicholas Elementary School, played the organ at various parishes and started a recording studio locally before moving to New York to pursue theater there.
Working both on Broadway and in pop music genres, Moritz has produced, mixed, and collaborated with Adam Lambert, Andrea Bocelli, Barry Manilow, Bette Midler, Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight, James Taylor, Jamie Foxx, John Legend, Mellissa Etheridge, the New York Philharmonic, Peter Frampton, and Stevie Wonder.
Moritz has musically directed more than 200 theatrical productions throughout the US and UK. His work as a pianist, music director, and arranger is featured on many recordings.
He received a 2021 Grammy Award nomination as producer of Stephen Schwartz’s “Snapshots” for Best Musical Theatre Album, the 2019 Tony Award for Best Musical as a co-producer of “Hadestown,” and a 2017 Emmy Award for Audio for “From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert for Orlando.” Moritz also received two Tony and Olivier nominations as a co-producer for Broadway/West End’s “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.” Other notable Broadway producing credits include “Big Fish,” “A Night with Janis Joplin,” “On the Town,” and “The Velocity of Autumn.”
During the COVID pandemic, Michael’s work has been featured on humanitarian and charity broadcasts and live streams having raised more than $50 million in 2020-2021 alone.
At the ceremony, Mortiz thanked Joanne Carney Smith, former Mooney assistant principal, and her husband, Ed Smith, a language teacher – both of whom worked in the drama and theater department at Mooney when Moritz was a student.
Perez, a graduate of Youngstown St. Patrick School, after Mooney attended Ohio University, where she received both a bachelor’s and master’s degree before she began her business career.
Today, Perez has more than 25 years of experience in starting and scaling businesses and non-profit organizations – including her own. She works with companies that want to develop and build their operational, sales, service, and human resources processes and systems.
She has worked directly with thousands of business owners and thousands of their employees from all over the world – including many minority businesses – as well as numerous non-profit organizations.
Perez serves as a member of Greater Cleveland Partnership’s (GCP) Board of Directors and its executive committee as well as various other committees, and is involved in numerous community organizations.
During her career she has received numerous awards and top honors including the Progressive Woman Award from Smart Business Magazine, and the Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the President’s Council.
Perez is also a 2019 WELD (Women for Economic & Leadership Development) honoree and received the Excellence in Sales and Marketing Award from the National Sales & Marketing Executives Association (NSME). She has been featured on NBC, FOX News, and StartUpNation.com as well as in Key4Women, and Crain’s Business Magazine.
A frequent speaker at commencements and business conferences, she is also host of CPTV, a weekly YouTube show that provides free step-by-step training for new entrepreneurs and small business owners.
Perez is also founder and president of the board of Mooney’s Minority Alumni Council. She lives in the Cleveland area with her husband and six children.
At the event, she acknowledged Diane Mastro Nard, her coach on the speech team, and Eileen Bacha, a retired English teacher. Bacha received a Mooney Distinguished Alumni award last year.
Kimberly Cox, a 1989 Mooney graduate and a member of Mooney’s alumni committee who helps coordinate the annual ceremony, described the event as “an absolutely a thrilling day. Mike (Moritz) and Cheryl (Perez) spoke directly to our students.”
Cox added: “Their speeches were so inspirational. Both honorees emphasized the foundation in discipline, work ethic, self-confidence and communication built at Mooney, along with their sense of community and family and the importance of empathy and kindness in all that they do.”
Following the ceremony, Moritz played a piano that he donated to school several years ago.
