Buddy Fletcher

Infobox Person


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name = Alphonse Fletcher, Jr.
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birth_date = 1966
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residence = The Dakota
city-state|New York|New York
USA
nationality = American
other_names = Buddy
known_for = Philanthropy, Kidder Peabody discrimination suit, Trading
education = A.B. in applied mathematics Harvard College, 1987
Master’s degree in Environmental Management Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, 2004
employer = Bear Stearns (1987–??)
Kidder Peabody (19??–91)
Fletcher Asset Management (1991–present)
occupation = money manager, trader
title = founder, Chairman, and CEO
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partner = Hobart V. Folkes Jr.
children =
parents = Alphonse & Bettye R. Fletcher, Sr. (James P. Comer, stepfather)
relatives = Brothers Todd and Geoffrey


website = http://www.fletcher.com/alphonse.html
footnotes =

Alphonse "Buddy" Fletcher, Jr. (born 1966) is an African-American philanthropist who had previously been a successful money manager. Fletcher first became notable when employed by Kidder, Peabody & Co. During this time, he had an agreement entitling him to 25% of the profits he earned for the firm. However, when he generated $25 million one year, the firm did not uphold its agreement, and Fletcher sued for racial discrimination and US$3 million in back pay.cite web|url=http://www.newsweek.com/id/113866|title=Taking On The Great White Way: Wall Street: Will Recent Discrimination Suits Open The Door For Women And Minority Executives?|accessdate=2008-09-12|date=1993-07-19|publisher=Newsweek, Inc.|work=Newsweek|author=Brant, Martha and Jolie Solomon] [cite web|url=http://www.law.cornell.edu/nyctap/I93_0157.htm#n1a|title=ALPHONSE FLETCHER, JR., APPELLANT, v. KIDDER, PEABODY & COMPANY, INC., RESPONDENT. / RITA REID, APPELLANT, v GOLDMAN, SACHS & CO. ET AL., RESPONDENTS|accessdate=2008-09-15|date=1993-07-09|publisher=Cornell University Law School] He eventually won an arbitration award of $1.3 million.cite web|url=http://mycrains.crainsnewyork.com/40under40/profiles/1998/1020|title=40 Under 40 > 1998 > Alphonse Fletcher Jr. |accessdate=2008-09-12|publisher=Crain Communications|work=Crain's New York Business|author=Birger, Jon]

Fletcher had worked at Bear Stearns before working for Kidder and founded his own firm, Fletcher Asset Management after the dispute with Kidder Peabody. Having donated tens of millions of dollars for various charitable causes, Fletcher has become a major philanthropist. He has established several lasting legacies with his charitable efforts; two such efforts include the establishment of the Fletcher Foundation and the endowment of a University Professorship at Harvard University. He has also been a serious contender for statewide public office in the United States state of New York.

Personal

Fletcher, Jr. was raised in city-state|Waterford|Connecticut. His father Alphonse Sr. was a technician at the Electric Boat Corporation in Groton,cite web|url=http://aspen.conncoll.edu/news/1580.cfm|title=Community philanthropist, Waterford native Buddy Fletcher May 5|accessdate=2008-09-14|date=2005-04-25|publisher=Connecticut College|author=Martin, Amy] a company famous for making 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 whose Harvard educations he helped pay for. Fletcher describes his parents as aspiring. Unlike his younger brothers Todd who attended Phillips Academy and Geoffrey who attended Choate Rosemary Hall, Fletcher attended public schools in Waterford.

In college, Fletcher excelled scholastically, and he was a well-respected quarterback on his intramural football team. [cite web|url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=137410|title=House Football Nears Playoffs: Leverett Buzz-Saw Slices Through Adams, 28-0|accessdate=2008-09-14|date=1985-11-01|work=The Harvard Crimson|author=Ullyot, Ted] He also endowed the Alphonse Fletcher Sr. Fellowship program, named after his late father.cite web|url=http://www.fletcherphilanthropy.org/Application2007.doc|title=THE FLETCHER FELLOWSHIP|accessdate=2008-09-12] Fletcher's mother remarried Yale professor Dr. James P. Comer. Comer founded the Comer School Development Program and Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center. Fletcher has lived on the Upper West Side in The Dakota with his partner, Hobart V. Folkes Jr., since the early 1990s. He also owns property in city-state|Montauk|New York. [cite web|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990DE3D6143EF936A15754C0A96F958260|title= WEDDINGS; Victoria Wolfe, Michael Findlay|accessdate=2008-09-16|date=1999-07-25|publisher=The New York Times Company|work=The New York Times]

Early life and education

Fletcher's first experience with investment, risk and return occurred when he was in junior high school. He and his father developed a computer program to determine dogs to invest in at the dog racing tracks. His program was able to select dogs that would win place or show, but due to the odds of the dogs it was selecting and the commission that the race track extracted, his work was not profitable.cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=0DE0dBXG15AC&pg=PT144&lpg=PT144&dq=Fletcher+Kidder+dividend&source=web&ots=VNqq_ibj7C&sig=umnzxL8g3hu_wEzugl7PZpQ4MF8&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPT135,M1|title=Stock Market Wizards: Interviews with America's Top Stock Traders|author=Schwager, Jack D.|isbn=0066620597|edition=Rev Upd edition|date=2003|publisher=Collins Business]

He attended Harvard College where he received an A.B. degree as an applied mathematics major in 1987.cite web|url=http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/1996/04.25/UniversityProfe.html|title=University Professorship Named for Fletcher: Honors graduate of Harvard Class of 1987|accessdate=2008-09-12|date=1996-04-25|publisher=President and Fellows of Harvard College|work=Harvard University Gazette] He was elected first marshall (class president) of the 1987 class. He has earned a Master’s degree in Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. [cite web|url=http://home.nycap.rr.com/businessteacher/Index_files/Page564.htm|title=Alphonse Fletcher, Jr.|accessdate=2008-09-12] 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.cite web|url=http://www.fletcher.com/alphonse.html|title=Alphonse Fletcher, Jr.|accessdate=2008-09-12|publisher=Fletcher Asset Management] 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.

One of his college internships was with Pfizer where through the employee stock ownership program he learned the principal of investing in discounted assets. This was his first experience purchasing stocks.cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=0DE0dBXG15AC&pg=PT144&lpg=PT144&dq=Fletcher+Kidder+dividend&source=web&ots=VNqq_ibj7C&sig=umnzxL8g3hu_wEzugl7PZpQ4MF8&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPT135,M1|title=Stock Market Wizards: Interviews with America's Top Stock Traders|author=Schwager, Jack D.|isbn=0066620597|edition=Rev Upd edition|date=2003|publisher=Collins Business]

Professional career

The United States National Defense budget cuts caused people to encourage Fletcher to find a private sector job despite his ROTC training. After graduating from college in 1987, he became a trader for Bear Stearns. He was subsequently hired by Kidder Peabody where he emerged as an elite trader. After his tenure at Kidder Peabody he founded Fletcher Asset Management. Fletcher began his career as quantitative equity trader who capitalized on dividend-related arbitrage. At Bear Stearns he had worked in the options department, but at Kidder he worked in the equity trading group. He has also buys discounted equity stakes in companies, many of which are in restrictive liquidity positions which have caused the discounting of otherwise fundamentally sound investments.

Alphonse Fletcher vs. Kidder Peabody

By age 25, he was Kidder's top equity trader, and he was earning $2 million a year. At the time Kidder was owned by General Electric (GE). As part of his relationship with Kidder, the company agreed to pay him one quarter of the profits that he made for the firm, but when he earned the firm $25 million dollars 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 dollar (plus punitive damages) discrimination suit. Fletcher claimed the firm 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. [cite web|url=http://www.law.cornell.edu/nyctap/search/display.html?terms=collective%20bargaining%20not%20liibulleitn&url=/nyctap/I93_0157.htm|title=ALPHONSE FLETCHER, JR., APPELLANT, v. KIDDER, PEABODY & COMPANY, INC., RESPONDENT. / RITA REID, APPELLANT, v GOLDMAN, SACHS & CO. ET AL., RESPONDENTS.|accessdate=2008-09-12|publisher=Cornell University Law School] The New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division ruled that an arbitration panel would hear his case.

Jurisdiction in the case was a hotly contested matter. In the Individual Assignment System (IAS) of the New York Supreme Court, Fletcher sued Kidder under the New York State Human Rights Law, alleging racial discrimination in employment in violation of Executive Law § 296(1)(a). In response, Kidder moved to stay the judicial proceedings and compel arbitration on the basis of the broad arbitration clause that plaintiff had signed during securities exchange registration applications. Defendant contended that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), which preempts state law mandates enforcement of plaintiff's promise to submit "controversies * * * arising out of [his] employment" to arbitration. The IAS court denied the motion, reasoning that "it would be against public policy to contract in advance for a [waiver of the right to obtain judicial redress of alleged racial discrimination." New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, however, reversed and granted the requested relief after concluding that the FAA and the cases decided under that statute mandated enforcement of plaintiff's arbitration agreement (cite court |litigants=Fletcher v. Kidder Peabody, & Co. |vol=183 |reporter=AD2d |opinion=359 |pinpoint= |court=N.Y. Court of Appeals |date=July 9, 1993 |url=http://www.law.cornell.edu/nyctap/I93_0157.htm#n1a |quote=reversed and granted the requested relief after concluding that the FAA and the cases decided under that statute mandated enforcement of plaintiff's arbitration agreement.). The United States Supreme Court declined to hear the case.cite web|url=http://www.businessweek.com/archives/1994/b339572.arc.htm|title=TO BE YOUNG, GIFTED, AND SITTING PRETTY |accessdate=2008-09-12|date=1994-10-24|publisher=The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.|work=BusinessWeek] He eventually won an arbitration award of $1.3 million.cite web|url=http://mycrains.crainsnewyork.com/40under40/profiles/1998/1020|title=40 Under 40 > 1998 > Alphonse Fletcher Jr. |accessdate=2008-09-12|publisher=Crain Communications|work=Crain's New York Business|author=Birger, Jon]

Fletcher Asset Management

When he started Fletcher Asset Management (FAM), he was identified by "Fortune" as the top earning member of their thirty talented individuals under the age of thirty.cite web|url=http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1994/12/12/80043/index.htm|title=Don't call me SLACKER! Meet America's top talents under 30. They are unorthodox, rebellious, and a challenge to manage.|accessdate=2008-09-12|date=1994-12-12|publisher=Cable News Network|work=Fortune|author=Sellers, Patricia] 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.cite web|url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1996/04/29/1996_04_29_082_TNY_CARDS_000375207|title=The Buddy System|accessdate=2008-09-13|date=1996-04-29|publisher=CondéNet|work=The New Yorker|author=Heller, Zoe] 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 uses sophisticated hedges with both types of investments. He has also been involved in PIPE deals. [cite web|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE1DB1031F936A35755C0A9629C8B63|title= When Private Mixes With Public; A Financing Technique Grows More Popular and Also Raises Concerns|accessdate=2008-09-16|date=2004-06-05|publisher=The New York Times Company|work=The New York Times|author=Atlas, Riva D.] By some accounts he is chauffeured to work in a Mercedes-Benz, but by other accounts he is driven in a Bentley, and others confirm that he travels in a Jaguar.

At first Fletcher hired 22 employees, but quickly found himself overstaffed. In 1994 he employed 11 workers. By 1996, his firm employed 25 people. His firm's trading activity often accounts for 5% of the volume on the New York Stock Exchange, and former boss and mentor Alan Greenberg describes him 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 entrepreneurial firm has thrived, he never dreamed of entrepreneurial enterprise and had hoped to be a GE executive someday.

Public office

Alan G. Hevesi won the 2006 New York Comptroller election on November 7, 2006, but resigned from his four-year term the following month after pleading guilty to a felony for using a state worker as a driver and aide for his wife. Fletcher was among a field of eighteen candidates who submitted résumés to the New York State Legislature in January 2007. Eventual selection Thomas DiNapoli was an immediate front runner for the position. [cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/20/nyregion--/20comptroller.html?|title=Candidates for State Comptroller Line Up|accessdate=2008-09-12|date=2007-01-20|publisher=The New York Times Company|work=The New York Times|author=Cooper, Michael] Fletcher had been convinced to enter his name by various public supporters. [cite web|url=http://empirezone.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/another-hat-in-the-ring/?|title=Another Hat in the Ring|accessdate=2008-09-16|date=2007-01-18|publisher=The New York Times Company|work=The New York Times|author=Confessore, Nicholas] Other notable candidates were New York State Legislature members Richard Brodsky, Joseph Morelle, Felix Ortiz, Pete Grannis, and Martin Connor; and State and local officials Andrew SanFilippo, Martha Stark, and Andrew Eristoff. [cite web|url=http://empirezone.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/01/19/the-candidates-for-comptroller/|title=The Candidates for Comptroller|accessdate=2008-09-16|date=2007-01-19|publisher=The New York Times Company|work=The New York Times|author=Hakim, Danny]

Philanthropy

In 1993, following the death of friend and advisor Reggie Lewis, he 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. [cite web|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980CE7DE163BF935A1575AC0A965958260|title=Gifts Help N.A.A.C.P. Focus on Economic Agenda |accessdate=2008-09-12|date=1993-09-26|publisher=The New York Times Company|work=The New York Times|author=Teltsch, Kathleen]

In 1996, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of "Plessy v. Ferguson", ussc|163|537|1896, Fletcher endowed a University professorship at Harvard College with a $4.5 million dollar donation. The Alphonse Fletcher, Jr. chair belongs to a special category of endowed positions established in 1935 as Harvard's highest professorial distinction. Unlike professors employed by a department or a school, University professors are free to teach courses in any discipline that they desire. The chair was intended to be held, "whenever possible, by a faculty member from one of the professional schools who is devoted to teaching and research about contemporary moral, religious, and social values, and whose interests include undergraduate education." Before leaving for Princeton University, Cornell West held this chair. In 2006, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. became the Fletcher University Professor.cite web|url=http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/10.26/99-gates.html|title=Gates named Fletcher University Professor|accessdate=2008-09-17|date=2006-10-23|work=Harvard University Gazette]

In 2004, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of "Brown v. Board of Education", ussc|347|483|1954, Fletcher pledged a $50 million to create the Fletcher Foundation to give money to institutions and individuals working to improve race relations.cite web|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B00E7DA153FF93BA25756C0A9629C8B63|title=$50 Million Gift Aims to Further Legacy of Brown Case |accessdate=2008-09-12|date=2004-05-18|publisher=The New York Times Company|work=The New York Times|author=Rimer, Sara] The donation rivals prior gifts by Oprah Winfrey and Bill Cosby as one of the largest ever by an African-American. The fellowships are awarded to individuals who improve race relations in a manner that promotes the broad social goals of the Brown v. Board of Education decision that outlawed segregation in public schools.cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_22_109/ai_n26699047|title=Alphonse Fletcher announces 2006 Fletcher Fellows|accessdate=2008-09-12|date=2006-06-05|publisher=CNET Networks, Inc.|work=Jet] The $50,000 fellowships are awarded to educators, lawyers, scientists, artists, economists, writers, doctors and others. Among those advising him on uses of the pledged money were Henry Louis Gates, K. Anthony Appiah, Amy Gutmann, and Thelma Golden.

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.cite web|url=http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/02.16/01-profchallenge.html|title=Professorship Challenge Fund set into motion: Harvard donors aim to increase faculty resources across University
accessdate=2008-09-12|date=2006-02-16|publisher=President and Fellows of Harvard College|work=Harvard University Gazette]

Fletcher has supported schools, churches and community organizations in Harlem; donated encyclopedic and educational materials to public schools throughout Connecticut, New York City, and several large cities; and sponsored exhibits at the New York Historical Society, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Studio Museum in Harlem. [cite web|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F05E5DF173CF935A15751C0A96F958260|title= Metro Business; Schools Getting Gift Of Encarta Africana|accessdate=2008-09-16|date=1999-02-26|publisher=The New York Times Company|work=The New York Times|author=Archibold, Randal C.] Fletcher has also supported the Harvard Medical School, and the Harvard School of Public Health.

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 Moorehouse 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.cite web|url=http://hglc.org/about/awards.html#fletcher|title=HGLC 2005 Civil Rights Award|accessdate=2008-09-14|publisher=Harvard Gay and Lesbian Caucus, Inc.]

ervice

Fletcher has served his alma mater in many ways with his time in addition to his money. He served on the Committee to Visit the College, and is a member of both the New York Major Gifts Committee and the Committee on University Resources. He once served as director of the Harvard Alumni Association and co-chaired his class of 1987 10th Reunion Gift Committee. Fletcher was also an Associates chair for the Class of 1987, and has generously supported the 2003 and 2006 Harvard College Black Alumni Weekends. Fletcher is also a member of the Harvard Friends of Engineering and Applied Science and has made a number of gifts and pledges to Harvard over the years, such as the donation in 1994 of his holdings of stock in Fletcher Capital Markets Inc., an affiliate of FAM. 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. He has served as chairman and his company has served as corporate sponsor of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's annual opening night gala.

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