Employee-owned, Customer-driven, Mission-focused
Since 2005, Criterion has provided high-end information technology and systems integration services for many of our nation’s mission-critical environments. Criterion focuses on cybersecurity, IT infrastructure operations, systems engineering, and application development.
As an employee-owned company, all of Criterion’s personnel share a common interest in the company’s success. And from the CEO’s office to the front lines, our people understand that there is only one true measure of success: customer satisfaction. To us, customer satisfaction means more than just meeting performance requirements – it means understanding our customers’ missions, learning how our services enable mission success, and working shoulder-to-shoulder with our customers to ensure they are able to achieve their goals.
This is more than a job – it is a calling, and we stop at nothing to ensure our customers are able to execute their missions in support of the United States of America.
Quality
Quality of service is the most important factor in delivering on our commitment to our customers. As such, Criterion has invested in and maintains an ISO 9001:2015-certified Quality Management System (QMS) that provides Quality Control processes and procedures to be applied across all our contracts. This certification means we bring repeatable processes for monitoring, controlling, and correcting contract performance as needed to ensure we meet or exceed all requirements. Through consistent execution of these processes, we maintain a customer satisfaction rating greater than 99% as measured by customer surveys.
Customer Testimonials
Award-Winning
In 2019, Criterion CEO Promod Sharma was recognized as an EY Entrepreneur of the Year for the Mid-Atlantic Region in the category of cybersecurity and Criterion was named a Washington Post Top Workplace. Over the past few years, Criterion has also been recognized for its outstanding growth and commitment to the DC region, appearing on the 2018 Washington Business Journal list of 75 fastest-growing companies in the Washington, DC, region and the 2018 and 2019 Fantastic 50 lists of fastest-growing businesses in Virginia; winning the Moxie Award for Boldness in Business in the category of cybersecurity in 2017; and securing a place on the 2017 and 2018 Inc5000 list of fastest-growing companies in the United States. The company was also nominated for the Outstanding Corporate Citizenship Award in Northern Virginia in 2018. Furthermore, its Las Vegas-based office and employees have been recognized in multiple ways, winning a Patriotic Employer Award in 2018 and having two outstanding employees become finalists for the 2018 Las Vegas Women in Technology Awards for Cybersecurity.
Community
Criterion’s corporate philosophy holds that true success requires us to give back to our community. We encourage, support, and celebrate our employees’ many and varied community outreach activities through our Criterion Cares program. From a corporate perspective, we take a very focused approach. Since 2009, Criterion has supported The Women’s Center (TWC), an organization that provides mental health counseling, support, and education to the metropolitan area to help people live healthy, stable, and productive lives. Recently, we became a patron sponsor of the organization. But more than simple philanthropy, we are actively working with The Center to host a fundraising happy hour this summer. Employees are also volunteering on various committees to increase the exposure of TWC and brand to more of a family resource. By choosing to support one organization in a focused way, we can have a big impact.
We have extended this focused approach in our growing offices in Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Kansas City, and others by seeking out local leaders and organizations to partner with to make a difference. For example:
Shootout for Soldiers Sponsor
Criterion is proud to be a sponsor for the 2018 Shootout for Soldiers, an charity event benefiting veterans, taking place in Arlington, VA. The event, a 24-hour lacrosse game, was brought to our attention by the program manager of our OCIO contract who has participated in the past and will be participating again this year. The organization hosts more than ten “shootouts” a year across the country. The mission behind the event and the organization is to use lacrosse as a platform to support American veterans and foster community engagement.
Criterion Sponsors DC Walk For Carcinoid Cancer
Criterion sponsored the DC Walk for Carcinoid Cancer in memory of Sonya Jain, the founder and CEO of eGlobalTech and a good friend of CEO Promod Sharma, who lost her fight with the disease late last year.
Criterion’s NETL team participates in Bike Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
Criterion’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) team joined 1,200 riders across Western Pennsylvania in raising nearly $600,000 for local programs and services for people affected by MS.
Criterion Helps Rehabilitate Garden for Niles
Criterion partnered with our USDA customer, the National Information Technology Center (NITC), to participate in United Way’s Day of Caring in June 2017. We worked together to rehabilitate a large garden at the Niles campus in Kansas City. Niles, an organization that provides residential and day treatment programs for children and teens, is reopening this summer. The garden will be used as a part of their development program for residents. A great time was had by all and we were happy to dedicate our time to helping out such a great organization!
Bridges to Community: Raise the Roof in Nicaragua
Criterion sponsored Bridges to Community's Raise the Roof X fundraiser in the fall of 2017. The organization raised over 50k and the money will help build 10 homes for families in Nicaragua.
Leadership
Promod Sharma
President and CEO
Promod Sharma is the President and CEO of Criterion Systems. Promod is responsible for setting the strategic direction, creating and modelling the company culture, building and leading the senior executive team, and allocating capital to the company’s priorities.
He co-founded the company in 2005 as a federal government contractor with a focus on providing cybersecurity services to three Federal agencies. In 2018, Criterion was recognized as one of the fastest growing businesses in the DC region, delivering on the promise of his vision.
A serial entrepreneur, Mr. Sharma has enjoyed a successful career in the information technology industry. He has managed numerous mergers and acquisitions and led high growth IT services companies. Mr. Sharma is skilled at building strong, motivated teams and corporate cultures that achieve exceptional results.
Prior to founding Criterion Systems, Mr. Sharma served as president and CEO of CNSI, a government technology services and solutions company. He also co-founded ID DataWeb. Earlier in his career, Mr. Sharma held senior level positions at INET, EDS, and Genesys Corporation. He is also the founder and CEO of Abolish Child Trafficking (ACT) Now Inc., a humanitarian initiative that focuses on combating child trafficking in the Washington metropolitan area.
Mr. Sharma obtained a B.S. in Physics with Honors from Delhi University (India) and a M.S. in Finance from the London School of Economics. He is a Certified Chartered Accountant from England.
Steve Mast
Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Co-founder
Steve Mast is the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. He is responsible for the financial, compliance, and administrative functions of Criterion.
Mr. Mast is a seasoned executive with financial management experience in both public and private information technology firms. He has extensive government contracting experience and has managed numerous mergers and acquisitions as well as equity and debt offerings. He is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) who has served as the CFO of several technology and government services firms.
Mr. Mast obtained a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Delaware where he graduated first in the class.
David Coxe
Executive Vice President & Corporate Development Officer, Co-Founder
Mr. David Coxe is the Executive Vice President and Corporate Development Officer. He is responsible for strategic development and investment initiatives that drive corporate growth. He concurrently manages operations of a federated identity management software start-up providing infrastructure and applications to securely and privately share data across corporate trust boundaries using Web services.
Mr. Coxe has extensive operations, marketing and direct sales experience and an in-depth understanding of current technology with a track record of developing and implementing high-value strategic business initiatives for both commercially and federally focused organizations. He also brings strong merger, acquisition and integration skills, including asset disposition and capital formulation for both public and private companies.
Mr. Coxe obtained a B.S. in Engineering with Honors and Distinction in 1978 from the University of Delaware and an M.S. in Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Charlie Doyle
Senior Vice President, Civilian Operations
Mr. Charlie Doyle is the Senior Vice President of Civilian Operations. He is responsible for revenue growth, successful execution of program operations, and customer relationships within Criterion’s Civilian Business Operations Division, including the company’s growing Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of Agriculture business areas.
Before joining Criterion, Mr. Doyle held progressive senior leadership roles overseeing IT portfolios at SAIC and Raytheon over a 25+ year career supporting the Federal Government. He has managed day-to-day operations of Programs, Divisions and Business Areas with Sales in excess of $100M annually during his career.
Mr. Doyle is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) since 2010, and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration: Computer Information Systems from Bloomfield College.
Marcie Cheney
Senior Vice President, Business Development Strategy
Ms. Marcie Cheney is the Senior Vice President of Business Development Strategy. She leads Business Development, Capture Management, Proposal Management, and Marketing for the company.
Prior to Criterion, Ms. Cheney directed media relations and supported integrated marketing programs for a small technical solutions company. She also was a corporate communications manager where she led media and analyst relations activities. And finally, she led account teams and developed communications strategies for business and technology clients at three different communications firms.
Ms. Cheney has a B.A. in Government and History from Bowdoin College. She recently served as President of the Maine State Society Foundation and is active with The Women’s Center (TWC).
Bob Heckman
Chief Information Officer
Mr. Bob Heckman is the Chief Information Officer overseeing Criterion’s technology-related strategies and initiatives. He works with the IT organization and a seasoned executive team to deliver reliable, high-performance IT systems and infrastructure. He is charged with identifying cost and productivity improvements, developing security frameworks for IT assets, increasing IT process maturity, and improving integration. He evaluates technologies and designs technical architectures to manage complexity and increase business agility.
Mr. Heckman is a graduate of the Air Force Communication Electronics School and Marine Corps Communication Electronics School. He also attended the School of Electrical Engineering at Ohio University, and is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and member of the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISC2).
Bob is a Cyber Division Member of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), and a previous Cyber Committee Board Member for the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA).
Dan Chandler
Chief Information Security Officer
Mr. Dan Chandler is Criterion’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and cybersecurity solutions architect. As CISO, he directs and approves the design of security systems; reviews and approves cybersecurity policies, controls, and cyber incident response planning; identifies risks and actionable plans to protect the business; makes sure cybersecurity policies and procedures are communicated to all personnel and that compliance is enforced; and briefs the executive team on status and risks.
As a cybersecurity solutions architect, he supports service offering development and provides business development, capture, and proposal activities involving cybersecurity and privacy requirements. Mr. Chandler provides strategic leadership for the company’s information security programs to ensure that they are aligned with Criterion’s technology capabilities.
Mr. Chandler is a graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, a retired U.S. Army officer, and a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He received his M.S. in Strategic Intelligence from the Defense Intelligence College; a professional certification as a Post-Graduate Intelligence Professional (PGIP); and is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Authorization Profession (CAP), and Project Management Professional (PMP). Since retiring from the military, Dan has been active in the cybersecurity and privacy fields for more than 21 years.