Fernando was born to CK and Laura Fernando while the two were living in Denmark, after CK completed a Fulbright Scholarship at New York University and Laura completed her studies in classical piano under a Juilliard School professor. He was born the youngest of three children after his two sisters, Netasha and Tanya, and moved to the United States before the age of one. Fernando attended Beloit College, where he earned bachelor's degrees in economics and history. He also studied at the University College London.
Career
While in college, Fernando volunteered at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. From 1991 to 2001, Fernando worked in various roles including trading positions at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade. In 2002, Fernando founded Chopper Trading, a Chicago-based proprietary trading firm that concentrated in the areas of fixed income, equities, and other products. Fernando became CEO of the company. During Chopper's development, Fernando designed, implemented, and managed sophisticated risk management, communications, trading, monitoring, and source code security systems. Since the company's founding, Fernando's work helped make the company a major participant on the world's largest global exchanges including the CME, Nasdaq, LSE, ICE, and Eurex with approximately 250 employees globally. In 2010, Fernando was part of a staff roundtable discussion on disruptive trading practices for the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In January 2015, Fernando sold Chopper Trading to DRW Trading Group for $1 in "a deal that fuse two of the best known companies in Chicago's proprietary trading community." In 2016, Fernando launched Workstorm.com, an Internet start-up, and serves as the Chairman and CEO.
Foreign policy
Fernando is a board member of American Security Project, the Foreign Policy Leadership Committee at the Brookings Institution and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Fernando was granted a spot on the State Department's International Security Advisory Board. He resigned shortly after questioning from ABC about his appointment in order to, according to Fernando, focus on the needs of his company, citing unexpected and excessive volatility in the international markets due to the European financial crisis. Shortly after the resignation, the ABC News report was published, bringing his appointment into question. In relation to the 2016 presidential election, ABC News revisited the terms of Fernando's ISAB appointment, questioning his experience and contributions to the Clinton Foundation. Those criticisms were later scrutinized as mischaracterizing Fernando's background in cyber security following reports and comment released by the State Department and ISAB. According to the ISAB Charter, membership should reflect a balance of backgrounds, points of view, and demographic diversity and include a wide variety of scientific, military, diplomatic, and political backgrounds. ISAB executive directorRichard Hartman referred Fernando as an expert in "cyber security," and said that Fernando has experience in the private sector implementing sophisticated risk management systems, information technology and international financial markets. Retired Brigadier General Stephen A. Cheney, ISAB member and CEO of American Security Project, recognized Fernando's "expertise in cyber-security a great asset to national security." Fernando’s expertise in financial systems aligns with ISAB work related to financial security, including a 2014 ISAB report that was released regarding cyber security in the financial industry.
