Buddy Fletcher facts for kids

Alphonse "Buddy" Fletcher Jr. was born on December 19, 1965. He is an American who used to manage special investment funds. He also started the Fletcher Foundation, which helps good causes.

Buddy Fletcher began his career working with investments at companies like Bear Stearns and Kidder, Peabody & Co.. He later started his own company, Fletcher Asset Management, in 1991. His main investment fund, Fletcher International, faced financial difficulties and was declared bankrupt in 2012.

Early Life and Education

Buddy Fletcher grew up in Waterford, Connecticut. His father, Alphonse Sr., worked as a technician at a company that builds submarines. His mother, Bettye, was a teacher and later a school principal. She earned a special degree in education.

Buddy has two younger brothers, Todd and Geoffrey. Geoffrey is a writer and director for movies and has won an Oscar.

Buddy went to Harvard College. He earned a degree in applied mathematics in 1987. He was chosen as the top student leader for his graduating class. Later, in 2004, he earned a master's degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. This degree focused on managing the environment.

Career in Finance

After finishing college in 1987, Buddy Fletcher started his career at Bear Stearns. He worked as a trader who looked for special ways to make money from stock dividends. He then moved to Kidder Peabody to work in their stock trading team.

Starting Fletcher Asset Management

After working at Kidder Peabody, Buddy Fletcher started his own company, Fletcher Asset Management, in 1991. This company made private investments in smaller public companies.

In its early years, Fletcher Asset Management used a lot of borrowed money to make investments. His main plan was to trade stocks and other investments for himself and his clients. He also made longer-term investments in companies. He used special strategies to protect his investments from big losses. At one point, his company's trading was a significant part of the daily activity on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1994, he changed his company's registration to make it easier to manage money for others.

Fund's Financial Problems

In July 2011, one of Fletcher Asset Management's investment funds, FIA Leveraged Fund, could not pay back $144 million to three investors. These investors were pension funds from Louisiana. In April 2012, a court in the Cayman Islands decided that the fund did not have enough money. The court ordered that the fund be closed down and its assets sold.

In June 2012, Fletcher International Ltd., which was the main fund for Fletcher's investments, filed for bankruptcy in New York. This meant the company needed legal help to manage its debts.

Legal Cases

Alphonse Fletcher v. Kidder Peabody

In 1991, after working at Kidder Peabody, Buddy Fletcher filed a lawsuit. He claimed that he was treated unfairly because of his race at work. A court in New York decided that his claim should be handled through a special process called arbitration. In this process, a neutral third party helps resolve disputes. Fletcher was awarded $1.26 million in this arbitration. However, his specific claim of racial discrimination was later dismissed in another arbitration.

The Dakota Apartment Lawsuit

In February 2011, Fletcher filed a lawsuit against the board of directors of The Dakota apartment building in Manhattan. He had lived there since 1992 and owned four apartments. He claimed that the board had unfairly treated him and spread false information. In March 2010, Fletcher had tried to buy a fifth apartment in the building. The Dakota's board said they rejected his request because of the financial information he provided. In September 2015, a judge dismissed Fletcher's lawsuit. Fletcher said he planned to appeal this decision.

Tax Lien

In May 2013, The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. government had placed a $1.4 million tax lien against Fletcher. This meant he owed that amount in income taxes.

Fletcher Foundation and Giving Back

In 1993, Buddy Fletcher gave $1 million to a special fund called the Reginald F. Lewis Memorial Endowment. He did this after his friend and mentor, Reginald Lewis, passed away. This fund was created by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

In 1996, Fletcher supported a special professorship at Harvard College. This was to mark 100 years since a famous court case called Plessy v. Ferguson.

In 2004, Fletcher started the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor Fellowship program. This program helps professors at Harvard who are working to improve relationships between different races. This program is part of the Fletcher Foundation. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is one of the professors who holds this special title at Harvard.

Personal Life

In December 2007, Buddy Fletcher married Ellen Pao in San Francisco. At the time, Ellen Pao worked at a company that invests in new businesses. Fletcher and Pao had met earlier in 2007 through a program called the Aspen Institute. They have one daughter, who was born in July 2008.

Fletcher owns homes in The Dakota in New York City. As of 2019, he and Ellen Pao were in the process of getting a divorce.