Net worth: $150 million
Source of wealth: Investments
Residence: New York City
Age: 43
Father was a technician, mother was an elementary school principal. "Buddy" majored in applied math at Harvard University, enrolled in ROTC. Sought fortune on Wall Street while serving 10-year stint in Air Force reserves. Joined financial firm Kidder, Peabody. Personally generated $25 million in profits one year; firm allegedly refused to pay promised 25% trading commission. Left to start investment outfit Fletcher Asset Management in 1991. Average annual returns said to have topped 100% in first five years of operation. Owns hundreds of acres of land in Cornwall, Conn. In 2004 pledged $50 million with affiliates to fund programs and support individuals who promote racial equality.
A prominent black Wall Street money manager has filed a lawsuit against the Dakota, accusing the legendary New York apartment building of racial discrimination and defamation in preventing him from buying an apartment there.
Alphonse Fletcher Jr., 45, who has lived in the Dakota since 1992, filed the lawsuit after the board denied his application to buy an adjacent unit to accommodate his family. (Here is The New York Times article
and the complaint, which was filed on Tuesday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan.)
In a statement, the board of the Dakota said it had not yet reviewed the lawsuit, but that “Mr. Fletcher’s application to purchase an additional apartment in the Dakota was rejected based on financial materials he provided.”
“Any accusations of racial discrimination are untrue and outrageous,” the statement continued. “Mr. Fletcher is a longtime resident of the Dakota and served several terms on its board, recently as its president. The Dakota board is confident in the soundness of its decision.”
Internecine warfare among co-op boards is a matter best left for our colleagues in Metro or Real Estate. But let’s take a closer look at Mr. Fletcher.
He first made headlines on Wall Street 20 years ago.
Then a 25-year-old wunderkind trader fresh out of Harvard, Mr. Fletcher sued his employer, Kidder Peabody & Company, accusing the firm of paying him only half of the $5 million to $6.5 million in compensation that he said he was due.
The lawsuit (below) claimed that Kidder considered the amount “simply too much money to pay a young black man.” An arbitration panel eventually awarded Mr. Fletcher $1.3 million.
While fighting it out with Kidder, Mr. Fletcher hung up his own shingle, Fletcher Asset Management. He set up offices on the 48th floor of the General Motors Building on Fifth Avenue, among the more prestigious addresses for the hedge fund set. His specialty, according to a 1991 Wall Street Journal article, was dividend-related stock arbitrage, a strategy that uses options to accumulate large positions in companies poised to pay dividends.
Over the years Mr. Fletcher has generated headlines more for his philanthropic activity than his Wall Street pursuits. In 1994, he donated $4.5 million to Harvard to endow the Alphonse Fletcher Sr. Professorship, a position held by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
In 2004, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, Mr. Fletcher pledged $50 million to institutions and individuals working to improve race relations. (The Dakota board’s concern over his finances stemmed in part from questions over whether he had made good on his philanthropic commitments, according to the lawsuit. Apart from a few hundred thousand dollars a year Mr. Fletcher gives in charitable stipends, it is unknown how much more of the $50 million he has donated.)
Fletcher Asset Management has moved its offices several times over the years. After leaving the G.M. Building, Mr. Fletcher set up shop in a luxury townhouse at 22 East 67th, which in 2004 was sold to Phil Falcone, the hedge fund manager, for use as his personal residence. (Mr. Falcone later purchased a neighboring East 67th Street mansion from Bob Guccione, the publisher of Penthouse.) Today, Fletcher Asset Management operates from 48 Wall St. in the old Bank of New York Building.
As a privately held firm, it is not required to disclose its assets, but according to an investor presentation, Fletcher’s flagship “income arbitrage” hedge fund has generated an average net return of 8 percent a year since 1997.
Mr. Fletcher is married to Ellen Pao, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a leading venture capital firm. They have a two-year-old daughter and spend much time in Northern California, where Kleiner Perkins is based. Before his marriage to Ms. Pao, Mr. Fletcher lived in the Dakota with Hobart V. Folkes Jr., his partner of more than 10 years, according to a New York Times article in 2004 on Mr. Fletcher’s philanthropy.
