Criterium Press Releases

For Immediate Release

Contact: Ronny Schnel
310-377-7517
rkschnel@criteriuminc.com

January 17, 2006

Criterium Targets Global Growth

Criterium, a Saratoga Springs, N.Y.- based contract research organization (CRO), is in a global growth mode, opening offices in the Netherlands and India recently. That is ambitious for a 33-employee company.

"Our goal is to buy into India and to have staff in India. In the Netherlands what we decided to do was rather than invest in a brand new company, we put somebody in the Netherlands and also allied ourselves with another company [IMRO TRAMARKO] that looks very similar to us in size. I felt very comfortable with the owners of the company. They have about 30 people,” John Hudak, president and founder of Criterium, told CWWeekly.

Criterium has been working in India for two years but opened an office in Pune last November. Gautam Jit Kanwar was named director of Criterium India. Kanwar has more than 10 years of experience in developing data processing solutions and managing offshore teams. The Pune office employs data processing and quality assurance staff. “Working in a region before opening an office constitutes the next step in the implementation of Criterium’s strategy to flatten our process of providing world-class clinical development services. No matter where a staff member sits, he or she is integrated into our processes using technology developed within the company,” Hudak said.

The project team in India works directly with the teams in South Africa and the United States. Founded in 1991, Criterium also has offices in Rolling Hills Estates, Calif., and Johannesburg, South Africa.

“The plans are to build value in the organization. As long as we continue to build value, then we have options as to what we want to do—either to go on as we are. As a private company, you can provide incentives to the managers as they mature and grow, even to the point where the managers could own the company. Or we could merge or sell to a larger player. Building expertise and value is really the goal,” Hudak said.