James Fletcher learned his first investing lessons in his grandfather’s armchair. As he and his grandpa spent each Saturday morning flipping through The Wall Street Journal together and discussing stock picks, the real investment wasn’t in equities—it was in Fletcher himself.
The experience stuck with Fletcher, who ended up building a career upon the belief that investing in people creates the greatest return. Fletcher, who earned his BS in management in 2007 with an emphasis in corporate finance, eventually founded two impactful organizations: a nonprofit that teaches high school students how to manage money and a social impact investment firm that hires and trains BYU–Pathway graduates in underserved countries.
That weekend ritual with his grandfather became a weekday routine for Fletcher; during high school, he was up before dawn checking his mock portfolio on dial-up internet before heading to class. His mission to Brazil then introduced him to the complexity and potential of emerging markets, and he carried that perspective into his finance studies at BYU Marriott. After graduating, he stepped into positions that brought together his financial skill set and his interest in emerging economies—first as senior analyst at Westwood Global Investments, then as the lead portfolio manager at Kayne Anderson Rudnick’s emerging markets small cap fund, and later as the director and senior portfolio manager of the emerging markets small- and mid-cap fund at APG Asset Management.
It was during Fletcher’s time at Kayne Anderson Rudnick that he received a letter from a high school student named Edgar who had heard a finance presentation Fletcher gave while volunteering at a Los Angeles inner-city school. “Adults don’t really do that anymore, especially for teenagers,” the student wrote to Fletcher. “Your 45-minute presentation has changed my goals for my life. It has given me something to strive for.”
Inspired by that letter, Fletcher created Young Investor’s Society (YIS) to reach more students like Edgar. “Many states do not currently have a curriculum for personal finance or investing,” Fletcher points out, so YIS fills this gap with lesson plans, presentations, and instructional videos to assist teachers in delivering financial literacy education. “We help kids learn, then invest, and then inspire others to do the same,” he says.
Fletcher brought this same mindset to Ethos Investment Management, the boutique investment firm he launched in 2022. “It’s a unique social impact fund,” Fletcher says of the organization, which invests in emerging markets and hires BYU–Pathway graduates to become analysts. “We set up the fund so that for every $1.5 million in assets, we hire one BYU–Pathway graduate for a full-time, three-year position in our associate’s program. Our target is to help 1,000 graduates over the next 10 years.”
Fletcher also shares his expertise as an adjunct professor at BYU Marriott, teaching portfolio management to MBA students in MBA 629R: Silver Fund. In his spare time, he enjoys being in nature, golfing, and strumming his guitar on his back porch in Springville, Utah, where he lives with his wife, Marné, and five children.
Just as Fletcher’s grandfather invested in him, Fletcher has invested in others. Whether he’s giving teens access to financial education or BYU–Pathway grads access to jobs, Fletcher is playing the long game. He is banking on a future where the next generation is equipped, empowered, and ready to give back.
