Our Team

Arpeggio’s owner was commissioned through the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) after earning his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Puerto Rico in 1982. COL Fernandez also has a Master of Science in International Relations degree from Troy University, and has completed course work for both a Doctor of Business Administration degree from University of Phoenix, and Program Management Professional certification. During his military career, COL Fernandez served as a Platoon Leader and Executive Officer, held a number of battalion staff positions, and also served as a Company Commander and brigade staff officer prior to becoming the Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff Engineer for the 7th ARCOM in Schwetzingen, Germany. He then served for two years as Plans Officer, Joint and Combined Multi-Agency Strategic Exercises US SOUTHCOM J34 in Miami, Florida. COL Fernandez then joined III Corps in FT Hood, TX as the Corps Staff Engineer and later became the Multi-National Corps-Iraq Staff Engineer Officer and led his section in Iraq from August 2006 – August 2007, providing valuable engineering support to the surge and ensuring certification of soldiers responsible for Improvised Explosive Device Disposal. Upon his return from the Iraq, COL Fernandez served in the Office of the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Deputy Chief of Staff for Reserve Components, where he lengthened his proven track record of collaborating and thriving in a fast-paced, team environment to achieve mission success.

After COL Fernandez retired in 2010 with 30 years federal service, he spent a few years providing expert advice and counsel on strategic positioning, sales and marketing, and business development to a number of Washington DC Metropolitan Area companies. He founded Arpeggio, LLC in 2013.

Mr. Bearse has been helping organizations manage risk in an increasingly complex and challenging threat environment for over 25 years. Prior to joining Arpeggio in early 2018, Mr. Bearse was the principal consultant at Nauset National Security Group (NNSG), LLC where he provided a wide range of consultative and technical services support to industry and government, both domestically and internationally. His areas of expertise include critical infrastructure protection, national security emergency preparedness, emergency management, continuity planning, public-private partnership building, program management and business development. Prior to forming NNSG, he served as a senior executive in the education credit industry for 5 years and served in a variety of analytical, managerial and senior leadership positions over the course of a 21-year career with the U.S. Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and the Treasury, including positions as: Director of the Business Continuity and Emergency Preparedness Staff in the Office of the Under Secretary for National Protection Programs at DHS; Director of the Office of Security and Critical Infrastructure Protection at Treasury; Chief of Exercise Policy, Development and Conduct at FEMA; Federal Coordinating Officer at FEMA; Principal Advisor to the Director of FEMA Regions I and IX, and Senior Program Specialist in FEMA’s International and Industrial Partnerships Division where he helped develop the Disaster Resistant Communities, Public/Private Partnership in Emergency Management, and Emergency Management Technology Commercialization Program Initiatives in the late 1990’s.

Mr. Bearse holds an MPA from the George Washington University and a BA in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is also a Senior Fellow at the George Mason University Center for Infrastructure Protection and Homeland Security and a distinguished graduate of the National Defense University’s Industrial College of the Armed Forces.