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, cloud/data center management, IT infrastructure operations, and systems engineering.
From the CEO’s office to the front lines, Criterion’s 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
Over the past few years, Criterion has also been recognized for its outstanding growth and commitment to the DC region, appearing on the 2018 and 2019 Washington Business Journal lists of 75 fastest-growing companies in the Washington, DC, region; the Virginia Business 2018-2020 Fantastic 50 lists of fastest-growing businesses in Virginia; and the 2020 Inc. 5000 Series: D.C. Metro list of fastest-growing private companies. In 2020, the company secured a place on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in the United States for the sixth time, something only two percent of companies achieve. It also appeared on the inaugural Financial Times 2020 Americas’ Fastest Growing Companies list. Criterion CEO Promod Sharma was recognized as a 2019 EY Entrepreneur of the Year for the Mid-Atlantic Region in the category of cybersecurity and Criterion was named a Washington Post Top Workplace in 2019 and a Military Friendly® Employer for 2020 and 2021. In 2020, Criterion was named an official Virginia Values Veterans Certified Company and a U.S. Department of Labor HIRE Vets Gold Medallion Award winner.
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. In 2017, we became a patron sponsor of the organization. But more than simple philanthropy, we actively work with the Center to host an annual fundraising summer happy hour and employees serve on various committees to increase the exposure of TWC. By choosing to support one organization in a focused way, we can have a big impact. Read all our articles about what we’ve done with TWC over the years here.
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:
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 Volunteers Support Synergy Services
A group of Kansas City-based Criterion employees recently spent a day helping Missouri-based Synergy Services beautify their campus, as well as other painting, car washing and cleaning tasks. Criterion also donated $1000 to the organization. Synergy Services, Inc. began in 1970 as Synergy House, the only shelter for runaway and homeless youth in western Missouri.
Shootout for Soldiers Sponsor
In 2018 and 2019, Criterion was a sponsor of Shootout for Soldiers, a 24-hour lacrosse game and charity event benefiting veterans, taking place in Arlington, VA. 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 Supports Hour Of Code In Las Vegas
A group of cybersecurity employees from Criterion’s Las Vegas office recently volunteered for Hour of Code. Hour of Code is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries brought to you by Code.org, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to computer science in schools and increasing participation by women and underrepresented minorities.
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.
Bridges to Community: Raise the Roof in Nicaragua
Criterion CEO Promod Sharma has sponsored the annual Raise the Roof fundraiser for Bridges to Community for the past several years. This organization helps build homes in Nicaragua.
Criterion Sponsors Annual Russ Shields/Ballers Invitational Golf Tournament
Criterion Systems has sponsored the Russ Shields/Ballers Invitational Golf Tournament for the past few years. 2019 marked the eleventh anniversary of the event and the seventh year that Criterion has been a sponsor.
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 is an organization that provides residential and day treatment programs for children and teens.
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.
Criterion Donates To Scouts Troop 323 In Missouri
Criterion made a donation to the BSA Troop 323 of Lee’s Summit, MO to help them buy camping equipment, such as tents, that they use every month of the year.
Criterion Supports “Feed the Kids” in Albuquerque
Criterion employees in Albuquerque recently participated in food drive organized by the Kirtland Air Force Base (KAFB) Security Forces, called Feed the Kids. The mission of the drive is to provide food to 75 at-risk children that attend Wherry Elementary and ensure they have enough to eat while outside of school.
Criterion Donates to the Harbour in Albuquerque
Team Criterion recently made a donation that was used to purchase 35 sleeping bags for the Harbour. This innovative program, which is part of the New Mexico Dream Center, is the very first drop-in center of its kind for the city of Albuquerque and a vital resource for the more than 5000 teens who are homeless and at risk of exploitation in the city, including human and sex trafficking.
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 recent years, Criterion has been recognized multiple times as one of the fastest growing businesses in the DC region, delivering on the promise of his vision. In 2019, Mr. Sharma won the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the Mid-Atlantic region in the category of cybersecurity.
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
Chief Operations Officer
Mr. Charlie Doyle is the Chief Operating Officer. He is responsible for revenue growth, successful execution of program operations, and customer relationships across Criterion’s Civilian and Defense Business Operations Divisions.
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
Chief Strategy Officer
Ms. Marcie Cheney is the Chief Strategy Officer. She is responsible for charting the company’s growth strategy, and leads Business Development, Capture Management, Proposal Management, and Marketing.
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).
Mr. Heckman 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.
John Pross
Vice President, Senior Program Manager
Mr. John Pross brings 15 years of Federal government contracting and 25 years of military experience to Criterion. His expertise is in large program management and cybersecurity/risk management and he plays an important leadership role as deputy for Criterion’s civilian operations. He also supports organizational maturity (CMMI and ISO), including the initial development of various project management checklists.
Mr. Pross has a long and distinguished military record. He served for more than 25 years as a United States Marine Corp (USMC) fighter pilot and flew F4s & F/A-18s in the operational forces. Mr. Pross joined Criterion from SRA International, Inc. in 2013. He has a B.S. in Physics from the U.S. Naval Academy and a M.A. in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College. He is PMP and CISSP certified.
For the past several years, Mr. Pross has been a PMI Washington DC Chapter Mentor, where he focuses on helping veterans transition into civilian life. In 2019, he was a NOVA Chamber Distinguished Service Awards Veteran Employee of the Year Award finalist and he spoke at the RSA Public Sector Day on Quantifying Risk Management.
Mr. Pross is active in his community, serving as a Deacon at the Haymarket Baptist Church (Vice Chair) and a board member for Magnificent Oaks Ministries, a non-profit, Christian battered women’s support organization.
Bakul Chibber
Vice President, Civilian Programs
Mr. Bakul Chibber is Criterion’s vice president of civilian operations programs. An experienced program management executive, he works closely with Criterion COO Charlie Doyle to oversee a portfolio of Federal civilian programs. He is also responsible for identifying areas of growth/new business and enhancing Criterion’s program management processes and procedures.
Mr. Chibber joined Criterion from IBM Corporation where he was the Executive-in-Charge of the Program Management Office (PMO) for the AT&T account. He is known for driving business success for both the enterprise and the customer by building strong relationships, supporting transparent communications, and anticipating and resolving issues. He is also recognized as an impactful mentor, empowering team members to achieve their professional goals.
Mr. Chibber has an Executive Project Manager Certification from IBM, is PMP certified, and has an MBA in finance and international business from the University of Maryland, College Park. He is a strong supporter of our military and has mentored many returning service women and men for assimilation and re-entry into the civilian work force. Mr. Chibber lives in Maryland with his wife. As a father of two grown daughters, he is passionate about education and advancement for women. His other interests include off-the-beaten path travel, nature, and golf.
Nick Lattanzi
Vice President, Strategic Business Development
Mr. Nick Lattanzi is a vice president of strategic business development at Criterion. In this capacity, he is key to Criterion Systems’ business development and capture efforts for the U.S. Army while additionally supporting several growth initiatives throughout the Department of Defense and other Federal civilian government agencies. He collaborates with government, industry, and academia while developing winning solutions for his customers in the areas of cybersecurity, IT infrastructure, application development, systems engineering, and data center management/cloud hosting.
Mr. Lattanzi joined Criterion from Patricio Enterprises, where he was vice president for strategy and plans. Prior to that he held the position of business development manager at AECOM where he was responsible for pursuing multi-billion-dollar services contracts with the Federal government.
Mr. Lattanzi has a B.S. in Business Administration, Concentration in Marketing, from Salisbury State University. He is a member of the Association of the United States Army (AUSA), Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA), Association of Old Crows (AOC), and Industrial Representatives Association (IRA), and was a Pyramid Award Finalist for Outstanding Integrated Delivery Project Wins, URS (AECOM), 2014, and the President’s Club/Contest Winner, Tech USA, 2006 and 2007.
In his home county, Mr. Lattanzi supports a variety of community activities and organizations, such as the Harford County Farm Fair, Harford County Sheriff’s Union Benevolent Fund, Habitat for Humanity, and the Harford County Public Library Foundation.