Technology entrepreneur Martha Daniel’s career has followed so many long, successful paths that when she calls herself a “pioneer” it sounds like an understatement.
Daniel owns and runs two firms based in Aliso Viejo, Cytellix and parent company IMRI, both of which provide cybersecurity, technology, program management, and engineering services.
Cytellix handles the managed cybersecurity services for both commercial and federal customers, while IMRI focuses more on consulting services and operations support for federal government and military contracts.
She is the founder, president, and chief executive of IMRI and founder and CEO of Cytellix, as well as the owner of both entities, which had combined 2019 revenue of $16.5 million.
That amount was good for the No. 37 position among Orange County’s largest women-owned businesses, according to the Business Journal’s latest rankings.
Daniel and her firms are mainstays on Business Journal lists, and she’s been honored by the paper before.
A good 21 years ago, she won a Woman in Business award from the paper.
The technology the company provides its customers has changed plenty since then, but Daniel’s success hasn’t waned. On Oct. 7, she was one of five honored during the Business Journal’s 2020 Family-Owned Business Awards (see stories, pages 1,6, and 8).
“I feel like I’m a veteran, I feel like I’m a pioneer,” she said after the 21st annual presentation of the accolades earlier this month. “I feel like a mentor.”
“Twenty-one years ago, I was kind of like just excited, starting a business,” she said. “It hasn’t been easy, but I feel accomplished.”
Daughter, Husband
Daniel says the key to her success is the “ability to deal with change in the technology” and “having the right people on my team.”
The right people include her daughter Maronya Moultrie, the company’s chief operating officer and general counsel.
“She’s been working for me now for 10 years,” said Daniel.
Working in a family business takes some adjusting.
“Make sure that you have that dividing line where you can still have that family relationship even though you’re working together every day,” is among the biggest challenges, she said.
Daniel’s husband, Mathurin Daniel, handles the administration and is the Federal Security Officer (FSO) for IMRI and Cytellix, responsible for managing the security program and maintaining the company’s facility and personnel security clearances.
Tech Career
Martha Daniel’s tech career started in 1970 with computer science studies in junior college, followed by a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Information Systems from California State Polytechnic University—Pomona, and an MBA from the University of La Verne.
She also had a stint as a cryptologist in the U.S. Navy, and later counted a successful corporate career, including stints as chief information officer at FDIC/Resolution Trust Corporation and senior systems engineer at IBM.
She founded IMRI in Aliso Viejo in 1992.
Her companies’ clients include the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, Congressional Budget Office, and Department of Homeland Security, as well as small and mid-size businesses and Fortune 500 companies such as Booz Allen Hamilton, Metropolitan Water District, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and BAE.
Her business has been focusing on cybersecurity for the last 12 years; she said the company’s been able to expand its offerings during the pandemic as more businesses moved to remote working and needed new types of security.
Hall of Fame
In 2018 Daniel was inducted into the Black Business Leader Hall of Fame.
People in Orange County have “received me very well.” At the outset of her career Daniel said she was told it would be difficult for her as an African American to be a successful entrepreneur in Orange County.
The tide is changing, hopefully faster now given the social issues that have dominated headlines in 2020, she said.
She tries to encourage African Americans to set up business in OC, using her own story as an example. “I try to get that message out every time I see or hear of a small business that’s trying to start up here.”
Philanthropy, Community
Daniel emphasizes spirituality, morals, ethics and “the integrity of what you do, how you treat people.”
“I’ve had some good years, I’ve had some maybe not so good years,” she says. “I’ve always had the belief that God would always bring me through, and he has.”
Daniel is also an ordained minister with the African Methodist Episcopal Church 5th District.
“I see at some point stepping back” from her business interests, to focus on other causes she is well known for, including philanthropy and community involvement, she told the Business Journal earlier this month. “I won’t call it a retirement. I’ll call it a retuning.”
