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Alphonse "Buddy" Fletcher, Jr. (born 1965) is an American trader and money manager. Fletcher began his career as a quantitative equity trader at Bear Stearns but first became noticed when he sued Kidder, Peabody & Co. for racial discrimination and US$3 million in back pay. He eventually won an arbitration award of US$1.3 million.

Personal and education

Fletcher was raised in Waterford, Connecticut. His father Alphonse Sr. was a technician at the Electric Boat Corporation in Groton, a company that makes submarines; his mother Bettye, a long-time teacher and later a social worker, a Dean, and school principal, received a Ph.D. in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Fletcher has two younger brothers. His brother Geoffrey S. Fletcher is the first African-American to win an Academy Award for screenwriting.

He attended Harvard College where he received an A.B. degree as an applied mathematics major in 1987. He was elected first marshall (class president) of the 1987 class. He earned a Master’s degree in Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in 2004. While an undergraduate student, he was enrolled in the United States Air Force Reserve Officers' Training Corps Aerospace Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Upon graduation, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and served in the United States Air Force Ready Reserve until his honorable discharge in 1997.

In 2007, Fletcher married Ellen K. Pao, a partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and, along with Fletcher, a Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. Fletcher and Pao have one daughter. Prior to his marriage to Pao, Fletcher lived with his partner Hobart V. Fowlkes Jr. Fowlkes, a current employee of Fletcher Asset Management has said, "Human beings aren't so simple that you can characterize them as straight or gay." Fowlkes is cited as Fletcher's companion in the Harvard Gay and Lesbian Caucus's announcement of Fletcher's selection as recipient of the organization's 2005 Civil Rights Award.

Investment education

Fletcher's first experience with investment, risk and return occurred when he was in junior high school when he and his father developed a computer program about betting at dog racing tracks.

One of his college internships was with Pfizer, where through the employee stock ownership program he began to focus on the principle that favorable pricing can compensate for volatility.

Professional career

After graduating from college in 1987, Fletcher began his career at Bear Stearns as a quantitative equity trader who capitalized on dividend-related arbitrage in the options department. He was recruited to Kidder Peabody as a trader in the equity trading group. After his tenure at Kidder Peabody, he founded Fletcher Asset Management. Fletcher Asset Management makes supportive investments in mid-sized public companies. After Fletcher’s 2010 investment in a regional bank and purchase of many of the bank’s troubled assets, experts noted that the deal was unusual and potentially groundbreaking because Fletcher invested in the bank by buying shares, essentially becoming a part owner.

Fletcher Asset Management

When Fletcher started Fletcher Asset Management (FAM), he was identified by Fortune in 1994 as the top earning member of their thirty individuals under the age of thirty. During the firm's first four years, it traded with heavy leverage. When he founded his firm as chairman and CEO, he located it on the 48th floor of the General Motors Building on Fifth Avenue. Fletcher had audited returns of 471% in 1992 and 177% in 1993, and unaudited returns of 267% in 1994 through August 31. During his first five years in business after founding his firm in 1991, the firm's audited annual returns were 350%. His general strategy was trading public instruments for his own account and on behalf of clients, but he also made longer-term equity investments. He used hedges with both types of investments. He has also been involved in PIPE deals.

His firm's trading activity at one time occasionally accounted for 5% of the volume on the New York Stock Exchange, and former boss and mentor Alan Greenberg described him in 1998 as a smart winner. In 1994, Fletcher surrendered his broker-dealer registration and became a registered investment adviser, which made managing money more convenient. Although his firm has thrived, he had never dreamed of entrepreneurial enterprise and had hoped to be a GE executive someday.

Litigation

Alphonse Fletcher vs. Kidder Peabody

At age 25, Fletcher was Kidder Peabody's top equity trader, and he was earning $2 million a year. At the time, Kidder Peabody was owned by General Electric (GE). As part of his relationship with Kidder Peabody, the company agreed to pay him one quarter of the profits he made for the company, but when he earned the company $25 million, they only paid him half of the amount promised. He sued for the other half ($3 million in back pay). In addition to the pay dispute, he filed a $5 million (plus punitive damages) discrimination suit. Fletcher claimed the company had kept their promise to white employees and claimed racial discrimination because white employees were paid more generously for similar work. Alleging a violation of State Human Rights Law, Fletcher filed a discrimination claim in the New York State Courts. The New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division ruled that an arbitration panel would hear his case.

Fletcher eventually won an arbitration award of $1.3 million.

Dakota lawsuit

In February 2011, Fletcher filed a lawsuit in New York Supreme Court against the Board of Directors of the Dakota co-op building in Manhattan where he has lived for more than 20 years.

1992, Fletcher purchased a first-floor apartment at the Dakota in New York City. Fletcher was only the second African-American approved to buy an apartment in the century-old building, and the Dakota had previously rejected three other applications of his.,

A year later, Fletcher attempted to purchase another, larger apartment, this one on the Dakota’s fifth floor. As a condition of approving the purchase, the Dakota board required him to immediately sell his first-floor apartment and prohibited him from using the first-floor apartment for any purpose until its sale became final. According to Fletcher, the Dakota board did not impose these restrictions on any other residents, and, consequently, they became known around the building as the “Buddy Rule.”

In 2002, Fletcher sought to buy a two-room, ninth floor apartment at the Dakota for his mother. The board approved the sale, but again imposed a number of conditions on Fletcher, including that he use a trust to buy the apartment and prohibiting anyone other than Fletcher’s mother—including relatives—from staying overnight in the apartment.

In 2010, Fletcher signed a contract to purchase apartment 52 at the Dakota, intending to combine this apartment with his existing fifth-floor apartment. The purchase was to be a $5.7 million all-cash transaction, and Fletcher agreed to prepay over $400,000 in maintenance fees. In connection with his application to purchase the apartment, Fletcher states that he submitted hundreds of pages of documents regarding his own finances and those of Fletcher Asset Management. The Dakota board, however, rejected Fletcher’s application.,

Fletcher then filed a lawsuit against the Dakota, a number of its directors, and others, alleging that the defendants had defamed him and engaged in unlawful self-dealing, unlawful discrimination, and inappropriate retaliation.

The case remains pending in New York State court.

Philanthropy

In 1993, following the death of friend and advisor Reginald Lewis, Fletcher donated $1 million to the Reginald F. Lewis Memorial Endowment. The endowment had been created by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People after Lewis instructed his wife to bequeath $2 million to the organization.

In 1996, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), Fletcher endowed a University professorship at Harvard College with a $4.5 million dollar donation.

In 2004, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), Fletcher pledged $50 million to create the Fletcher Foundation to give money to institutions and individuals working to improve race relations. Fletcher has since endowed the Alphonse Fletcher Sr. Fellowship program at Harvard, named after his late father.

In 2006, Fletcher was part of a consortium of individuals who created a $50 million Professorship Challenge Fund at Harvard University. The fund provides matching funds that encourages gifts to endow named professorships and provide faculty support across the University.

Committee memberships

Fletcher is a member of both the Harvard University New York Major Gifts Committee and the Committee on University Resources. Fletcher is also a member of the Harvard Friends of Engineering and Applied Science. Fletcher serves as a trustee of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the New School for Social Research, and the Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival. He has been the United Negro College Fund New York campaign chairman.

Awards

Fletcher earned the 1999 Ernst & Young New York City "Entrepreneur of the Year", 2002 Sponsors for Educational Opportunity "Leadership Award", 2004 United Negro College Fund "Extraordinary Black Man Award", 2005 Harvard University Gay and Lesbian Caucus "Civil Rights Award", and 2006 Morehouse College "Candle in the Dark". In explaining why he had been awarded the 2005 Harvard University Gay and Lesbian Caucus award, Tom Parry, president of the HGLC, said that Fletcher had distinguished himself, not just as a philanthropist but as someone who had worked tirelessly to further the causes of equality and racial justice.

Notes

1. ^ Rimer, Sara (2004-05-18). "$50 Million Gift Aims to Further Legacy of Brown Case". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2008-09-12.
2. ^ "HGLC 2005 Civil Rights Award". Harvard Gay and Lesbian Caucus, Inc. Retrieved 2008-09-14.
3. ^ Martin, Amy (2005-04-25). "Community philanthropist, Waterford native Buddy Fletcher May 5". Connecticut College. Retrieved 2008-09-14.
4. ^ "University Professorship Named for Fletcher: Honors graduate of Harvard Class of 1987". Harvard University Gazette. President and Fellows of Harvard College. 1996-04-25. Archived from the original on September 3, 2006. Retrieved 2008-09-12. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
5. ^ "Professorship Challenge Fund set into motion: Harvard donors aim to increase faculty resources across University". Harvard University Gazette. President and Fellows of Harvard College. 2006-02-16. Retrieved 2008-09-12.
6. Dipnarine, Danny, James Kocienski, and Apollo Marmarinos. "Alphonse Fletcher, Jr". Michael Hover. Retrieved 2008-09-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
7. ^ "Alphonse Fletcher, Jr". Fletcher Asset Management. Retrieved 2008-09-12.
8. ^ Haughney, Christine and Peter Lattman (2011-02-26). "The Man at the Center of a Dispute at the Dakota". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2011-02-26.
9. "Aspen Institute Names Emerging Leaders As 2007 Henry Crown Fellows". The Aspen Institute. Retrieved 2007-06-14.
10. Rimer, Sara (2004-05-18). "$50 Million Gift Aims to Further Legacy of Brown Case". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2011-02-26.
11. "HGLC 2005 Civil Rights Award". Harvard Gay and Lesbian Caucus, Inc. Retrieved 2011-02-26.
12. ^ Schwager, Jack D. (2003). Stock Market Wizards: Interviews with America's Top Stock Traders (Rev Upd edition ed.). Collins Business. pp. 116–118. ISBN 0066620597. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
13. ^ "To Be Young, Gifted, and Sitting Pretty". BusinessWeek. The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. 1994-10-24. Retrieved 2008-09-12.
14. Donsky, Paul (2010-04-01). "United Community Bank sells piece of itself along with bad loans". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
15. ^ Sellers, Patricia (1994-12-12). "Don't call me SLACKER! Meet America's top talents under 30. They are unorthodox, rebellious, and a challenge to manage". Fortune. Cable News Network. Retrieved 2008-09-12.
16. ^ Heller, Zoe (1996-04-29). "The Buddy System". The New Yorker. CondéNet. Retrieved 2008-09-13.
17. Atlas, Riva D. (2004-06-05). "When Private Mixes With Public; A Financing Technique Grows More Popular and Also Raises Concerns". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
18. ^ Birger, Jon. "40 Under 40 > 1998 > Alphonse Fletcher Jr". Crain's New York Business. Crain Communications. Retrieved 2008-09-12.
19. ^ Brant, Martha and Jolie Solomon (1993-07-19). "Taking On The Great White Way: Wall Street: Will Recent Discrimination Suits Open The Door For Women And Minority Executives?". Newsweek. Newsweek, Inc. Retrieved 2008-09-12.
20. "Alphonse Fletcher, Jr., Appellant, v. Kidder, Peabody & Company, Inc., Respondent. / Rita Reid, Appellant, V Goldman, Sachs & Co. Et Al., Respondent". Cornell University Law School. 1993-07-09. Retrieved 2008-09-15.
21. Haughney, Christine (2011-02-28). "Behind the Scenes at the Dakota". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-03-01.
22. Wachtel, Katya (2011-02-04). "Now Here's the Other Side of the Story on the Hedge Funder Suing the Dakota for Racism". Business Insider.
23. Complaint, Alphonse Fletcher v. The Dakota, No.11-101289 (N.Y. County Supreme Court Feb. 1, 2011).
24. Haughney, Christine and Peter Lattman (2011-02-28). "Dakota Co-op Board Is Accused of Bias". The New York Times.
25. Teltsch, Kathleen (1993-09-26). "Gifts Help N.A.A.C.P. Focus on Economic Agenda". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2008-09-12.
26. "The Fletcher Fellowship". fletcherphilanthropy.org. Retrieved 2008-09-12.
27. "Alphonse Fletcher announces 2006 Fletcher Fellows". Jet. CNET Networks, Inc. 2006-06-05. Retrieved 2008-09-12.

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• 1965 births
• Living people
• American financial businesspeople
• American money managers
• American philanthropists
• Harvard University alumni
• LGBT people from the United States
• People from New London County, Connecticut
• People from New York City
• American stock traders
• Stock and commodity market managers
• United States Air Force officers
• Yale University alumni