Alphonse "Buddy" Fletcher Jr. (born December 19, 1965) is an American former hedge fund manager and founder of the Fletcher Foundation. He began his career as a quantitative equity trader at Bear Stearns and later worked at Kidder, Peabody & Co. Fletcher, who is African American, sued Kidder Peabody for racial discrimination. Although his racial discrimination claims were dismissed, he eventually won an arbitration award of $1.26 million. Fletcher has also been involved in litigation centered on a dispute with the board of

The Dakota The Dakota, also known as the Dakota Apartments, is a Housing cooperative, cooperative apartment building at 1 West 72nd Street (Manhattan), 72nd Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The Dakota was construc ...

apartment building in New York City. Fletcher founded Fletcher Asset Management in 1991. His main fund, Fletcher International, may have been insolvent since 2008 and was declared bankrupt in 2012.

Early life and education

Fletcher was raised in Waterford, Connecticut. His father, Alphonse Sr., was a technician at the

Electric Boat Corporation General Dynamics Electric Boat (GDEB) is a subsidiary of General Dynamics Corporation. It has been the primary builder of submarines for the United States Navy for more than 100 years. The company's main facilities are a shipyard in Groton, C ...

in Groton, a company that makes submarines. His mother, Bettye, a long-time teacher and later a social worker, dean, and school principal, received a PhD in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Fletcher has two younger brothers, Todd, and Geoffrey, a screenwriter, film director and Academy Award winner. He attended Harvard College, where he received an A.B. degree as an applied mathematics major in 1987. He was elected first marshall of the 1987 class. He earned a Master's degree in Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in 2004.

Career

After graduating from Harvard College in 1987, Fletcher began his career at Bear Stearns as a quantitative equity

trader Trader may refer to: * Merchant, retailer or one who attempts to generally buy wholesale and sell later at a profit * The owner of a trading post, where manufactured goods were exchanged with native peoples for furs and hides. * Trader (finance), ...

who capitalized on dividend-related arbitrage. He was recruited to Kidder Peabody as a trader in the equity trading group.

Fletcher Asset Management

After his tenure at Kidder Peabody, he founded Fletcher Asset Management, which makes private investments in small-capitalization public companies. During Fletcher Asset Management's first four years, it traded with heavy leverage. 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 deal A private investment in public equity, often called a PIPE deal, involves the selling of publicly traded stock, common shares or some form of preferred stock or convertible security to private investors. It is an share allocation, allocation of sha ...

s. At one time, his firm's trading activity occasionally accounted for 5% of the volume on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1994, Fletcher surrendered his

broker-dealer In financial services, a broker-dealer is a natural person, company or other organization that engages in the business of trading securities for its own account or on behalf of its customers. Broker-dealers are at the heart of the securities and d ...

registration and became a registered investment adviser, which made managing money more convenient.

Fund bankruptcy

In July 2011, FIA Leveraged Fund, an investment vehicle managed by Fletcher Asset Management, was unable to meet a redemption request, totaling $144 million, by three Louisiana pension fund investors. In April 2012, the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands ruled that the fund was insolvent and ordered that it be wound up (liquidated). In June 2012, Fletcher International Ltd., the Bermuda-based "master fund" for the Fletcher funds, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Manhattan.Pension Funds Sue on a Deal Gone Cold
February 24, 2014 Deal B%k by Rachel Abrams New York Times

Litigation

Alphonse Fletcher vs. Kidder Peabody

In 1991, after working as an equity trader at Kidder Peabody, Fletcher filed a lawsuit in New York state court for employment racial discrimination. The

New York Court of Appeals The New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the Unified Court System of the State of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge and six Associate Judges who are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by t ...

ruled that Fletcher's claim must be arbitrated. In a NYSE arbitration, Fletcher was awarded $1.26 million, and in a subsequent arbitration, the racial discrimination claim was dismissed.

Dakota lawsuit

In February 2011, Fletcher filed a lawsuit against the Board of Directors of

co-op building in Manhattan, where he had lived since 1992 and owned four apartments. Among other things, he alleged defamation and unlawful discrimination. In March 2010, Fletcher had signed a contract to purchase a fifth apartment at The Dakota, intending to combine it with his current home. The Dakota's board said that it rejected Fletcher's application based on the financial materials he provided in his application. Judge Eileen A. Rakower granted The Dakota's motion for summary judgment and dismissed the suit in September 2015. Fletcher announced his intention to appeal.

Federal Tax Lien

On May 29, 2013, the ''Wall Street Journal'' reported that the Internal Revenue Service had filed a $1.4 million income-tax lien against Fletcher.

Fletcher Foundation and 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'', , Fletcher endowed a University professorship at Harvard College. In 2004, Fletcher created the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor Fellowship program to financially support professors working to improve race relations at Harvard. Funded as part of the Fletcher Foundation,

Henry Louis Gates Jr. Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker, who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African Ame ...

is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard.

Sexual harassment allegations

Michael Meade, an employee at Fletcher Asset Management, sued Fletcher in 1995 over their deal to split profits. During the lawsuit, Meade alleged that Fletcher fired him after Meade rejected his sexual advances. Fletcher denied the accusation, and they later reached a confidential settlement. In 2003 and 2006, two male caretakers who had worked for Fletcher accused him of sexual harassment. Fletcher denied the allegations. Both men reportedly won confidential settlements.

Personal life

In December 2007, Fletcher married Ellen Pao, then a junior partner at venture capital firm

Kleiner Perkins Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneurs ...

, in San Francisco. Fletcher and Pao met earlier in 2007 while

Aspen Institute The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1949 as the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. The institute's stated aim is the realization of "a free, just, and equitable society" through seminars, policy programs ...

fellows. They have a daughter together, born July 2008. Prior to his marriage to Pao, Fletcher was in a relationship with Hobart V. "Bo" Fowlkes Jr. for more than 10 years. Fowlkes is the godfather to Fletcher's daughter. Fletcher and his wife have lived in the St. Regis Residence in San Francisco. Fletcher also owns homes in

in New York City.http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/2Fletchervs.DakotaOpposingAffidavits.pdf As of 2019, he and Pao were in the process of divorcing.

References and notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fletcher, Buddy 1965 births LGBT African Americans Living people African-American investors American investors American financiers American hedge fund managers American money managers Philanthropists from New York (state) American stock traders Bear Stearns people Bisexual men Businesspeople from Connecticut Businesspeople from New York City Businesspeople from the San Francisco Bay Area Harvard College alumni Stock and commodity market managers United States Air Force officers Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies alumni People from New London, Connecticut People from Cornwall, Connecticut LGBT people from Connecticut American LGBT businesspeople African-American businesspeople Henry Crown Fellows 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people 21st-century LGBT people