The Metis Group, Inc. provides state of the art behavioral science consultation, research, and analysis to support the security missions of the U.S. Government and the private sector.
The Metis Group values and is driven by the synthesis of research and operational wisdom and aspires to the highest ethical and professional standards in all of our professional work through peer-consultation and reflective learning.
ABOUT US
Our professional staff is composed of active/retired Law Enforcement, Operational Psychologists, and Intelligence professionals - all recognized leaders in developing, researching, supervising, and practicing behavioral support for law enforcement, intelligence/counterintelligence, and defense operations and investigations. Each of our staff has years of experience related to operational consultation; has worked extensively in support of counterintelligence and other criminal investigations; and has distinguished backgrounds in interviewing, direct and indirect assessment, and the ethics of operational consultation.
Our focused mission, institutional knowledge, and expertise set Metis apart from any other firm in the Nation. Our size affords us the agility to be maximally responsive to our clients needs, carefully monitor the quality of services provided, and support leadership and innovation in national security/operations.
LEADERSHIP
Robert A. Fein, Ph.D.
Chairman, Forensic and National Security Psychologist
Robert Fein is a forensic and national security psychologist with a specialty in threat assessment and the prevention of targeted violence. For almost forty years he has worked with law enforcement and intelligence organizations to understand and prevent targeted violence, such as assassination, workplace violence, stalking, school violence, and terrorist attacks.
Dr. Fein worked at Bridgewater State Hospital from 1976 to 1985, conducting forensic evaluations and treating mentally disordered offenders. From 1985 to 1991, he served as the first Assistant Commissioner for Forensic Mental Health of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health.
From the 1980’s to the early 2000’s, Dr. Fein worked with the United States Secret Service. In his work with the Secret Service, he reviewed and consulted on several hundred protective intelligence cases concerning the assessment and management of persons who might present harm to the President and other national leaders. He co-directed two major Secret Service operational studies of targeted violence: one on assassination; the other on school attacks. In the first of these studies, the Secret Service Exceptional Case Study Project, Dr. Fein helped analyze the pre-attack behaviors and thinking of 74 persons who attacked or attempted to attack a prominent public official or figure in the U.S. from 1950 to 1996.
From 2003-2010, Dr. Fein served as a member of the U.S. Director of National Intelligence’s Intelligence Science Board. As a member of the Intelligence Science Board, from 2004 to 2009 he chaired the ISB Study on Educing Information (a study of the future of interrogation and intelligence interviewing). From 2011-2013 he was a member of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s Advanced Technology Board.
Dr. Fein is a consultant to the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit 1 and to the FBI’s Behavioral Assessment Program. He is a member of the U.S. National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s Intelligence Community Studies Board.
Dr. Fein received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1974 in Clinical Psychology and Public Practice. He received the American Academy of Forensic Psychology's Award for Distinguished Career Contributions to Forensic Psychology in 2003 and the Association for Threat Assessment Professionals’ Distinguished Achievement Award in 2014. He holds an appointment at McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Fein is the author or co-author of more than thirty publications on assassination, school shootings, workplace violence, stalking, threat assessment, and other work on preventing targeted violent attacks.
John M. Berglund
President & CEO
Mr. Berglund has over 36 years as a law-enforcement professional at both the local and federal level. Over 20 years were spent as a Special Agent with the United States Secret Service in two field offices, the Intelligence Division, as Assistant to the Special Agent in Charge in the National Threat Assessment Center, and as the Resident Agent in Charge of the Milwaukee Office. After his retirement from the Secret Service, Mr. Berglund was appointed to the position of District Commander, Federal Protective Service and later served as Acting Deputy Director, Office of Security and Investigations, Citizenship and Immigration Services within the United States Department of Homeland Security. From 2006 to 2018, Mr. Berglund served his community as a sworn law enforcement officer in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Mr. Berglund has significant experience in evaluating and developing programs for the prevention of targeted violence. While with the Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center, he was charged with developing training and operational strategies for protective and threat assessment activities. Mr. Berglund has provided consultation and training to numerous law enforcement agencies, governmental entities, and private concerns on targeted violence including terrorism, violence directed at public officials and public figures, school-based violence, stalking, and workplace violence. Mr. Berglund served as a Subject Matter Expert on Counterterrorism for the Homeland Security Institute and was a grant reviewer/evaluator for the National Institute of Justice (DOJ/NIJ). He previously served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Threat Assessment and on the Executive Committee, United States Attorney’s Anti-Terrorism Task Force in Milwaukee, WI.
Mr. Berglund received his BA in Psychology from Bethel College (now Bethel University), St. Paul, MN in 1981.
Mr. Berglund is the co-author of Threat Assessment: Assessing the Risk of Targeted Violence, published in the Journal of Threat Assessment and Management, 2015m Vol. 2; Evaluating risk for targeted violence in schools: Comparing risk assessment, threat assessment, and other approaches, published in Psychology in the Schools, 2001; and Defining an Approach for Evaluating Risk of Targeted Violence, published in Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 1999.
SERVICES
Protective Intelligence
Metis can evaluate organizational (public and private) protective and security strategies and provide recommendations to ensure integration and best practice compliance.
Threat Assessment
Metis specializes in assessing the nature and degree of risk posed by individuals and groups and developing strategies to manage and mitigate that risk.
Personnel Security & Selection
Metis has extensive expertise with assessment and selection of operational personnel.
Training
Metis provides training for government and non-governmental organizations, including state, local, and federal law enforcement agencies on protective/protective intelligence operations, terrorism, security awareness, cultural/geographic considerations in threat/risk assessment, and mental health considerations for law enforcement.
Operational Support
Metis provides behavioral case consultation and support to intelligence operators and law enforcement investigators on source/asset management activities including recruitment, vetting, tasking, debriefing, problem resolution, and termination. Our capabilities include reviewing complex background materials, performing indirect assessments, and assisting with the design of safe, legal, ethical, and effective interview or interrogation goals and strategies.
Operational Research
Metis conducts basic and applied behavioral research studies, which focus on incident-related behaviors and are driven by investigative, intelligence, and operational questions in order to help develop operationally relevant policies and practices for its clients.
Consultants/Advisory Group
The Metis Group works with a highly experienced and specialized team of experts in numerous fields to serve the most complicated and confidential needs
CURRENT & PAST CLIENTS
Metis has a proven track record of successful performance providing and managing behavioral science services for key government security agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).
References and past performance documentation available upon request