A woman- and veteran-owned cybersecurity firm is expanding its operations to Port San Antonio, another sign of the region’s role as a center of gravity for the industry.
IntelliGenesis, founded 16 years ago and based in Columbia, Maryland, provides customers, including the Department of Defense, with “next generation” cybersecurity services and products that take advantage of artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science.
The company will office within the Capital Factory, a self-described “innovation ecosystem” incubator that supports startups but has expanded its focus in recent years to pull in more mature companies.
IntelliGenesis founder Angie Lienert told the small crowd gathered at the Capital Factory on Wednesday afternoon that expanding to Port San Antonio was “a dream come true.”
The company has long done work in San Antonio, she said, but not on a large enough scale to open an office here — until now.
“We have wanted this for years and years,” she said. The small office within the Capital Factory is a foot in the door; eventually, “I want a great big ol’ sign on one of these buildings here,” she said, sweeping her arm to encompass the Port’s 1,900 acres.
IntelleGenesis’ website already lists more than a dozen job openings based in San Antonio, such as cyber defense analysts, a forensic analyst and a reverse engineer, the job description of which includes “technical analysis of malicious binaries through controlled execution and/or static analysis of assembly code.”
Jim Pershbach, CEO of Port San Antonio, said bringing IntelliGenesis to the Capital Factory allows for the type of “ecosystem in a bottle” he has long been keen to nurture at the Port, and will offer the “thousands of young people” who visit or take part in programs at the San Antonio Museum of Science and Technology, across the hall from the Capital Factory, the chance to envision a bright and obtainable future for themselves.
The same goes for young startup companies, he said.
“You’re letting people see the type of research that goes on when it comes to cyber communications, critical infrastructure, artificial intelligence and everything else,” he said. “So when you find a company [like] IntelliGenesis that is willing to be part of this kind of grand experiment we have in bringing people together, that’s a tremendously exciting thing.”
The San Antonio office will be overseen by Richard Valdez, who first met Lienert when he was serving as the chief technical officer of IPSecure, another cybersecurity firm located at Port San Antonio. As chief strategy officer, Valdez will focus on expanding IntelliGenesis’ work in San Antonio beyond its existing contracts.
“Port San Antonio is the epicenter of all things cyber,” said Valdez. “If you look at who’s in our backyard, just across the street, the 16th Air Force, all the cyber initiatives, who the next boss is going to be at U.S. Cyber Command — there’s going to be a big Air Force influence … and we want to be part of that.”
Both Lienert and Valdez are Air Force veterans.
Margaret Wilson-Anaglia, chair of the Port’s board of directors, said IntelliGenesis “saw what we have seen for years: We have the talent here to leverage these types of opportunities.”
“We have the talent and we can pay for the talent,” said Wilson-Anaglia, who joined the board in 2018 as the representative from City Council District 2.
She said the jobs available at the Port offer not just a living wage but a “life wage,” meaning one can buy a home, go on vacation and save for retirement. “We are about generational change here,” she said.
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