The Front Line
OF NSG Investing

Chief Investment Officer Justin Bernier founded NSG Index, LLC, to help Americans invest in emerging markets without harming U.S. national security and human rights interests. Doing business as National Security Index, the subadvisor offers impact investing through an innovative National Security Governance (“NSG”) lens. Bernier also co-founded All Source Investment Management, an independent advisor specializing in alternative investments. Bernier previously was an Alternative Investments Director and Portfolio Manager at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. Earlier in his career, he worked in the U.S. House of Representatives, managing national security initiatives for the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee and the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment. A former U.S. Navy Reserve officer, Bernier served at the Defense Intelligence Agency's Asia/Pacific Regional Center as well as the Joint Intelligence Operations Center-Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He has authored peer-reviewed articles in The Naval War College Review, U.S. Army War College Quarterly and PRISM, National Defense University's flagship journal of international security affairs. Bernier holds an MBA in Asset Management from Yale University, an MA in International Relations from Georgetown University, and an MPP in International Security & Economic Policy from the University of Maryland. His BA is from Fordham University in New York City.

Senior Advisor Roger W. Robinson, Jr., assists with the National Security Governance investing process. Robinson was architect of the covert economic and financial strategy for the take-down of the Soviet Union as Senior Director of International Economic Affairs in the Reagan National Security Council (NSC). From 1982 to 1985, Robinson was also Executive Secretary of the Senior Interdepartmental Group-International Economic Policy, a cabinet-level body that reported to President Reagan through the National Security Advisor. In this capacity, he had responsibility for managing strategic economic, financial, trade, technology, and energy relationships worldwide at the White House. Prior to his White House service, Robinson was a Vice President in the International Department of the Chase Manhattan Bank, overseeing Chase's loan portfolios in the Soviet Union, Central and Eastern Europe, and Yugoslavia. He also served as a personal assistant to then-Chase Chairman David Rockefeller for about three years. Drawing on his extensive experience at the intersection of global finance and national security, Robinson later built a leading open-source intelligence tool for tracking and visually mapping Chinese and Russian transactions worldwide daily, as President & CEO of RWR Advisory Group (later acquired by Janes Group of the UK). In the early 2000s, Robinson became Chairman of the Congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission for the bulk of his five-year tenure (2001 and 2006), providing bipartisan reports and expert testimony to both houses of Congress. Robinson is likewise Co-Founder and Chairman of the Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI) and Executive Director of PSSI Washington Inc., think tanks focused on international security issues critical to the transatlantic alliance. He is a frequent media commentator on the malign presence of Chinese companies in the U.S. and allied capital markets, an issue area he originated, and other topics in the global economic and financial domain. Robinson holds an MA from the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University and was on the Board of Visitors of the Sanford School of Public Policy for some seven years at his alma mater, Duke University.

Director of External Affairs Chris Caron manages relationships with national security professionals who can provide nonmaterial information and advice in support of the NSG investing process. Caron has over twenty-five years of experience working on national security issues, most recently as a Director of Government Affairs and Public Policy at an international law firm, helping defense and foreign investment clients navigate Washington, DC. A former congressional aide, Caron operated at senior levels of the U.S. House of Representatives for over a decade, notably as deputy chief of staff to a member of the House Appropriations Committee. During his time on Capitol Hill, Caron also served as a legislative director, a military legislative assistant, and an associate to the House Rules and Appropriations Committees. He is currently a strategic partner to Acorn Growth Companies, a middle-market private equity firm focused exclusively on aerospace, defense, intelligence, and space markets. A former U.S. Army infantryman, Caron is a veteran of the Virginia National Guard and the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. Caron is a graduate of The Catholic University of America, where he earned a B.A. and completed graduate work in Congressional Studies.