Former American hedge fund manager (born 1965)
Buddy Fletcher
|
---|
Born
| Alphonse Fletcher Jr.
(
1965-12-19
)
19 December 1965
(age 58)
|
---|
Other names
| Buddy
|
---|
Education
| Harvard University
Yale University
|
---|
Occupations
| |
---|
Employers
| |
---|
Known for
| Hedge fund management, fund bankruptcy, Kidder Peabody discrimination lawsuit, Dakota discrimination lawsuit, Philanthropy
|
---|
Spouse
|
(
m.
2007;
sep.
2019)
|
---|
Children
| 1
|
---|
Relatives
| Geoffrey S. Fletcher
(brother)
|
---|
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.
[1]
Fletcher has also been involved in litigation centered on a dispute with the board of
The Dakota
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.
[2]
Early life and education
[
edit
]
Fletcher was raised in
Waterford, Connecticut
.
[3]
His father, Alphonse Sr., was a technician at the
Electric Boat Corporation
in
Groton
,
[4]
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
.
[3]
[4]
Fletcher has two younger brothers, Todd, and
Geoffrey
,
[5]
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.
[6]
He was elected first marshall of the 1987 class.
[7]
He earned a Master's degree in Environmental Management from the
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
in 2004.
[8]
Career
[
edit
]
After graduating from Harvard College in 1987, Fletcher began his career at Bear Stearns as a quantitative equity
trader
who capitalized on dividend-related arbitrage.
[9]
He was recruited to Kidder Peabody as a trader in the equity trading group.
[6]
[7]
Fletcher Asset Management
[
edit
]
After his tenure at Kidder Peabody, he founded Fletcher Asset Management,
[6]
[7]
which makes private investments in small-capitalization public companies.
During Fletcher Asset Management's first four years, it traded with heavy
leverage
.
[10]
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.
[11]
He has also been involved in
PIPE deals
.
[12]
At one time, his firm's trading activity occasionally accounted for 5% of the volume on the
New York Stock Exchange
.
[13]
In 1994, Fletcher surrendered his
broker-dealer
registration and became a
registered investment adviser
, which made managing money more convenient.
[9]
Fund bankruptcy
[
edit
]
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.
[14]
[15]
In April 2012, the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands ruled that the fund was
insolvent
and ordered that it be "wound up" (liquidated).
[16]
[17]
In June 2012, Fletcher International Ltd., the Bermuda-based "master fund" for the Fletcher funds, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Manhattan.
[2]
[18]
Litigation
[
edit
]
Alphonse Fletcher v. Kidder Peabody
[
edit
]
In 1991, after working as an equity trader at Kidder Peabody, Fletcher filed a lawsuit in New York state court for employment racial discrimination.
[19]
The
New York Court of Appeals
ruled that Fletcher's claim must be arbitrated.
[20]
In a
NYSE
arbitration, Fletcher was awarded $1.26 million, and in a subsequent arbitration, the racial discrimination claim was dismissed.
[13]
[21]
Dakota lawsuit
[
edit
]
In February 2011, Fletcher filed a lawsuit against the Board of Directors of
The Dakota
co-op building in
Manhattan
, where he had lived since 1992 and owned four apartments.
[1]
Among other things, he alleged defamation and unlawful discrimination.
[22]
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.
[5]
[23]
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.
[24]
Federal tax lien
[
edit
]
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.
[25]
Fletcher Foundation and philanthropy
[
edit
]
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.
[26]
In 1996, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of
Plessy v. Ferguson
,
163
U.S.
537
(1896), Fletcher endowed a University professorship at Harvard College.
[3]
[6]
In 2004, Fletcher created the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor Fellowship program to financially support professors working to improve race relations at Harvard.
[3]
[27]
Funded as part of the
Fletcher Foundation
,
Henry Louis Gates Jr.
is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard.
[28]
[29]
Sexual harassment allegations
[
edit
]
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.
[30]
In 2003 and 2006, two male caretakers who had worked for Fletcher accused him of sexual harassment. Fletcher denied the allegations. Both men reportedly received confidential settlements.
[30]
Personal life
[
edit
]
In December 2007, Fletcher married
Ellen Pao
, then a junior partner at venture capital firm
Kleiner Perkins
, in San Francisco.
[30]
Fletcher and Pao met earlier in 2007 while
Aspen Institute
fellows.
[1]
[5]
[31]
They have a daughter together, born July 2008.
[30]
Prior to his marriage to Pao, Fletcher was in a relationship with Hobart V. "Bo" Fowlkes Jr. for more than 10 years.
[3]
[30]
Fowlkes is the
godfather
to Fletcher's daughter.
[30]
Fletcher and his wife have lived in the St. Regis Residence in San Francisco.
[30]
[32]
Fletcher also owns homes in
The Dakota
in New York City.
[30]
[33]
As of 2019, he and Pao were in the process of divorcing.
[34]
References and notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Bradley, Richard (March 2012).
"Is Harvard's Buddy Fletcher a Financial Genius- or a Fake?"
.
Boston Magazine
. Archived from
the original
on March 8, 2012
. Retrieved
April 26,
2012
.
- ^
a
b
Abrams, Rachel (February 24, 2014).
"DealBook | Pension Funds Sue on a Deal Gone Cold"
.
The New York Times
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Rimer, Sara (May 18, 2004).
"$50 Million Gift Aims to Further Legacy of Brown Case"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
September 12,
2008
.
- ^
a
b
Martin, Amy (April 25, 2005).
"Community philanthropist, Waterford native Buddy Fletcher May 5"
.
Connecticut College
. Archived from
the original
on July 16, 2011
. Retrieved
September 14,
2008
.
- ^
a
b
c
Haughney, Christine & Peter Lattman (February 26, 2011).
"The Man at the Center of a Dispute at the Dakota"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
February 26,
2011
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"University Professorship Named for Fletcher: Honors graduate of Harvard Class of 1987"
.
Harvard University Gazette
. President and Fellows of Harvard College. April 25, 1996. Archived from
the original
on September 3, 2006
. Retrieved
September 12,
2008
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Professorship Challenge Fund set into motion: Harvard donors aim to increase faculty resources across University"
.
Harvard University Gazette
. President and Fellows of Harvard College. February 16, 2006. Archived from
the original
on July 4, 2008
. Retrieved
September 12,
2008
.
- ^
Dipnarine, Danny; James Kocienski & Apollo Marmarinos.
"Alphonse Fletcher Jr"
. Michael Hover. Archived from
the original
on August 12, 2007
. Retrieved
September 12,
2008
.
- ^
a
b
"To Be Young, Gifted, and Sitting Pretty"
.
Bloomberg BusinessWeek
.
The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.
October 24, 1994. Archived from
the original
on August 5, 2011
. Retrieved
September 12,
2008
.
- ^
Schwager, Jack D. (2003),
Stock Market Wizards
,
HarperCollins
- ^
Heller, Zoe (April 29, 1996).
"The Buddy System"
.
The New Yorker
.
CondeNet
. Retrieved
September 13,
2008
.
- ^
Atlas, Riva D. (June 5, 2004).
"When Private Mixes With Public; A Financing Technique Grows More Popular and Also Raises Concerns"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
September 16,
2008
.
- ^
a
b
Birger, Jon.
"40 Under 40 > 1998 > Alphonse Fletcher Jr"
.
Crain's New York Business
.
Crain Communications
. Archived from
the original
on October 4, 2008
. Retrieved
September 12,
2008
.
- ^
Lattman, Peter (July 12, 2011).
"SEC and Pension Systems to Examine Fletcher Fund"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
April 24,
2012
.
- ^
Barbanel, Josh (December 20, 2011).
"Louisiana Pension Sets Plan for Fletcher Fund Loss"
.
The Wall Street Journal
. Retrieved
April 24,
2012
.
- ^
Eder, Steve (April 19, 2012).
"Judge Orders Liquidation of a Fletcher Hedge Fund"
.
The Wall Street Journal
. Retrieved
April 24,
2012
.
- ^
Thompson, Richard (April 20, 2012).
"Liquidation ordered for hedge fund that 3 local pension funds invested in"
.
The Times-Picayune
. Retrieved
April 25,
2012
.
- ^
Eder, Steve (July 4, 2012).
"Hedge Fund Files for Bankruptcy"
.
The Wall Street Journal
. Retrieved
July 8,
2012
.
- ^
"Alphonse Fletcher Jr., Appellant, v. Kidder, Peabody & Company, Inc., Respondent. / Rita Reid, Appellant, V Goldman, Sachs & Co. Et Al., Respondent"
. Cornell University Law School. July 9, 1993
. Retrieved
September 15,
2008
.
- ^
Brant, Martha & Jolie Solomon (July 19, 1993).
"Taking On The Great White Way: Wall Street: Will Recent Discrimination Suits Open The Door For Women And Minority Executives?"
.
Newsweek
. Newsweek, Inc
. Retrieved
September 12,
2008
.
- ^
Bradley, Richard (February 2012).
"Buddy Fletcher: Financial Genius ? or a Fake?"
.
Boston Magazine
. Retrieved
May 2,
2012
.
- ^
Haughney, Christine & Peter Lattman (February 28, 2011).
"Dakota Co-op Board Is Accused of Bias"
.
The New York Times
.
- ^
Lattman, Peter (February 2, 2011).
"The Money Manager Who Is Suing the Dakota"
.
The New York Times
.
- ^
McKinley Jr., James C. (September 15, 2015).
"Suit Accusing Dakota Co-op Board of Bias Against Blacks and Hispanics Fails"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
December 17,
2015
.
- ^
Barbanel, Josh (May 29, 2013).
"Fund Manager in Dakota Suit Faces Tax Lien"
.
The Wall Street Journal
. Retrieved
July 24,
2019
.
- ^
Teltsch, Kathleen (September 26, 1993).
"Gifts Help N.A.A.C.P. Focus on Economic Agenda"
.
The New York Times
. Archived from
the original
on July 14, 2012
. Retrieved
September 12,
2008
.
- ^
"Alphonse Fletcher announces 2006 Fletcher Fellows"
.
Jet
. CNET Networks, Inc. June 5, 2006
. Retrieved
September 12,
2008
.
- ^
"Gates Named Univ. Professor"
.
thecrimson.com
. Retrieved
March 23,
2015
.
- ^
"Buddy Fletcher: Financial Genius ? or a Fake?"
.
Boston Magazine
. February 28, 2012
. Retrieved
June 15,
2015
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
Andrews, Suzanna (March 1, 2013).
"Sex, Lies, and Lawsuits: The Unraveling of Ellen Pao and Her Husband, Buddy Fletcher"
.
Vanity Fair
.
Archived
from the original on February 25, 2015
. Retrieved
December 6,
2021
.
- ^
"Aspen Institute Names Emerging Leaders As 2007 Henry Crown Fellows"
. The Aspen Institute
. Retrieved
June 14,
2007
.
- ^
"San Francisco real estate news, data and statistics, home sales and real estate listings - San Francisco"
.
blockshopper.com
. Retrieved
March 23,
2015
.
- ^
Supreme Court of the State of New York
, Affidavits, February 2011.
- ^
Carleton English; Emmett Berg (August 16, 2019).
"Buddy Fletcher and Ellen Pao's marriage ending with mudslinging and acrimony"
.
NY Post
. Retrieved
December 6,
2021
.