Buddy Fletcher facts for kids

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

He began his career working with investments at companies like Bear Stearns and Kidder, Peabody & Co.. Later, he started his own company, Fletcher Asset Management. He has also been involved in some legal disagreements, including one with his apartment building's board.

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 school principal who earned a PhD in Education.

Buddy has two younger brothers, Todd and Geoffrey. Geoffrey is a well-known screenwriter and film director who won an Academy Award.

College Years

Fletcher went to Harvard College. He studied applied mathematics and earned his degree in 1987. He was chosen as the first marshall for his graduating class. Later, in 2004, he earned a master's degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Career in Finance

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

Starting Fletcher Asset Management

After working at Kidder Peabody, Buddy Fletcher started his own company, Fletcher Asset Management, in 1991. This company focused on making 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 public investments for himself and his clients. He also made longer-term investments in companies. He used 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, Fletcher changed his company's registration. This made it easier for him to manage money for clients.

Financial Challenges

In 2011, one of Fletcher Asset Management's investment funds, FIA Leveraged Fund, could not pay back money that three pension funds from Louisiana wanted to withdraw. In 2012, a court in the Cayman Islands decided that the fund was unable to pay its debts and ordered it to be closed down.

Later in 2012, Fletcher International Ltd., which was the main fund for Fletcher's investments, filed for financial protection in New York. This meant the company needed help to reorganize its finances.

Legal Disagreements

Buddy Fletcher has been involved in several legal disagreements during his career.

Alphonse Fletcher v. Kidder Peabody

In 1991, after working at Kidder Peabody, Fletcher filed a legal claim. He said he experienced unfair treatment at work. A court decided that his claim should be handled through a special process called arbitration. In this process, he was awarded $1.26 million. However, a later arbitration ruled that his claim of unfair treatment was not proven.

Disagreement at The Dakota

In 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 treated him unfairly and spread false information about him.

In 2010, Fletcher had tried to buy a fifth apartment in the building to combine it with his home. The Dakota's board said they rejected his request because of the financial information he provided. In 2015, a judge dismissed Fletcher's lawsuit. Fletcher said he planned to appeal this decision.

Tax Issue

In 2013, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had filed a claim against Fletcher for $1.4 million in income taxes.

Fletcher Foundation and Giving Back

In 1993, after his friend and advisor Reginald Lewis passed away, Fletcher donated $1 million to the Reginald F. Lewis Memorial Endowment. This fund was created by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

In 1996, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of a famous court case called Plessy v. Ferguson, Fletcher created a special professorship at Harvard College.

In 2004, Fletcher started the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor Fellowship program. This program, funded by the Fletcher Foundation, gives financial support to professors at Harvard who are working to improve relationships between different racial groups. 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 venture capital firm. They met earlier that year while they were both fellows at the Aspen Institute. They have one daughter, who was born in July 2008.

Fletcher and his wife have lived in San Francisco. Fletcher also owns homes in The Dakota in New York City.