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. It is this commitment to customer satisfaction that led one prominent customer to remark
“Your team does an unbelievable
job… when problems arise, they
work the problem, do the
engineering, and get it resolved.
You should be proud of the team
Criterion’s PM and leads have
assembled out here. They are as
good as any IT team I’ve seen.”
– Federal Program Customer
Award-Winning
Over the past two years, Criterion has been recognized for its outstanding growth and commitment to the DC region, appearing on the Fantastic 50 list of fastest-growing businesses in Virginia in 2018, winning the Moxie Award for Boldness in Business in the category of cybersecurity in 2017, and appearing on the 2017 Inc5000 list of fastest-growing companies in the United States. The company has recently been nominated for the Outstanding Corporate Citizenship Award in Northern Virginia. Its Las Vegas-based office and employees have also 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:
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.
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 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!
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 Supports Team Rubicon for Hurricane Harvey Disaster Response
Heartbroken by the devastation that those in Texas faced as a result of Hurricane Harvey, Criterion made a corporate contribution to Team Rubicon, a disaster response veterans service organization that utilizes the rapid response expertise of our military veterans.
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.
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. Earlier in his career, Mr. Sharma held senior level positions at INET, EDS, and GenesysCorporation. 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. Steve is responsible for the financial, compliance, and administrative functions of Criterion.
He 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. Mr. Mast 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. David 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. Charlie 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.
Joe Scott
Senior Vice President, Contracts and Pricing
Mr. Joe Scott is the Senior Vice President of Contracts and Pricing. Joe is responsible for all of the company’s contractual and pricing activities, to include developing proposal pricing strategies and negotiating agreements at both the prime and subcontract levels.
Mr. Scott has a broad base business of contracts, pricing, account management, and sales operations experience across both the commercial and federal marketplaces. During his career he has negotiated contracts and teaming agreements, developed pricing strategies, prepared pricing proposals, and ensured achievement of revenue goals for organizations across the computer systems, hardware products, software, software as a service, systems integration and services industries.
Mr. Scott earned a BBA from The College of William and Mary, and an MBA from George Mason University.
Marcie Cheney
Senior Vice President, Business Development Strategy
Ms. Marcie Cheney is the Senior Vice President of Business Development Strategy. Marcie 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 is active with Women in Technology (WIT) and currently serves as co-chair of the annual Leadership Awards program.
Bob Heckman
Chief Information Officer
Mr. Bob Heckman is the Chief Information Officer. He also leads Criterion’s Cybersecurity Center of Excellence and is responsible for executing the firm’s cybersecurity strategy that includes improving and optimizing the performance and security of our networks and systems, providing a dedicated group of experts focused on cybersecurity best practices who deliver innovative solutions and achieve operational excellence for each of our customers, and ensuring our IT Infrastructure enables the delivery of services to our clients. In addition, Mr. Heckman provides strategic leadership of the company’s information security programs and is aligned with Criterion’s technology capabilities.
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).
Kelley Artz
Senior Vice President, National Security Operations
Ms. Kelley Artz is Criterion’s Senior Vice President for National Security Operations. Ms. Artz joins us from CSRA where she served as the Business Area Director of DIA and NGA, leading CSRA’s $55M business in intel. She is a seasoned program manager and business leader with demonstrated results in increasingly complex roles supporting IT and mission critical professional services at DIA, OSD, DISA, and special access programs within DoD.
She led a $300M Continuity and IT support contract, earning the highest level of customer satisfaction scores. Her experience includes integrating contracts, finance, technical and staffing to succeed in delivering highly referenceable programs at DIA, OSD, and DISA. She attributes her success in large part to customer intimacy, serving as trusted advisor, and diligence in recruiting, identifying and mentoring talent on her project teams. In addition to her MBA, she has earned the following certifications: PMP, CISM, CGEIT, and Security +.
Clauzell McIntyre
Vice President, Software Engineering Center of Excellence
Mr. Clauzell McIntyre is a Vice President and Senior Program Manager. Mr. McIntyre leads Criterion’s Software Engineering Center of Excellence (COE), providing standardized software engineering processes, methodologies, training, and technical expertise in fulfilling its mission of providing quality software engineering services for all application development programs across the company.
Mr. McIntyre has more than 10 years of IT Program Management experience in support of large-scale, complex system implementations, upgrades and maintenance. He currently leads one of the task orders under Criterion’s United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Fire and Aviation Management (FAM) contract. He received a Master’s Degree in Mathematics from Clark Atlanta University, is a certified Project Management Professional, a certified Scrum Master, ITIL certified, and a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) in both Microsoft Project and Project Server.