Buddy Fletcher

Alphonse “Buddy” Fletcher Jr. was born on December 19, 1965. He was raised in Waterford, Connecticut, where his father worked at Electric Boat Corporation and his mother was an educator. Fletcher attended Harvard College, earning an A.B. in applied mathematics in 1987, and later received a master’s degree in environmental management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in 2004. His career in finance began at Bear Stearns as a quantitative equity trader, and he later moved to Kidder Peabody.

In 1991, Fletcher founded Fletcher Asset Management. Within five years of operation, his firm’s trading activities occasionally represented up to 5% of the total volume on the New York Stock Exchange. He established a reputation for generating consistent returns, with his firm reporting an unbroken series of profitable quarters for over a decade. In addition to his financial career, Fletcher has engaged in significant philanthropic work. In 1993, he made a notable donation to the Reginald F. Lewis Memorial Endowment. He furthered his commitment to education and civil rights by endowing a University professorship at Harvard College in 1996 and establishing the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor Fellowship program in 2004 to support professors focused on improving race relations.

Fletcher’s career experienced challenges, including a lawsuit against Kidder Peabody for racial discrimination, which resulted in a $1.26 million arbitration award. His firm, Fletcher Asset Management, was involved in litigation concerning its financial operations, leading to one of its investment vehicles, FIA Leveraged Fund, being declared insolvent in 2012, and the master fund, Fletcher International Ltd., filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the same year. He was also involved in a dispute with The Dakota co-op building board regarding an apartment purchase. Fletcher’s professional and philanthropic activities have been recognized in publications such as BusinessWeek and Forbes.