Houston businessman, who had been at 9/11, killed in attack on Nairobi hotel.
Jason Spindler was making his mark on the world.
The 40-year-old Houston native was working in Africa, using the San Franciscobased company he cofounded to bolster businesses in emerging markets. He valued diversity and strove for inclusivity.
“If you looked at him and talked to him, you’d say, ‘This guy is destined to change the world,’” his father, Joseph Spindler, a Houston physician, said Wednesday. “And he did.”
His death this week — one of at least 21 people killed in the terrorist siege on the DusitD2 luxury hotel and shopping complex in Nairobi, Kenya — left mourners around the world.
Jason would have turned 41 on Monday, and his friends in Africa are still planning to throw a birthday party, his father said. He was a ringleader — with a graceful presence and infectious smile, say those closest to him.
“He was just a wonderful individual,” Joseph Spindler said.
The Nairobi attack was Spindler’s second terrorist attack. He worked at Building 7 at the World Trade Center in 2001, but was running late on Sept. 11. He was walking out of the subway when he saw the first building coming down, his father said.
Kevin Yu, Spindler’s roommate at the University of Texas at Austin in the late 1990s, said his friend was on the front lines in the week after the Sept. 11 attacks, rushing to lend a hand.
Knowing how he responded in New York leaves little doubt that Spindler was trying to help others during the siege in Nairobi, said Yu, who lives in Dallas.
“There’s no question in my mind that when he heard the first explosion, he wanted to be helping people,” Yu said.
Al-Shabab, an Islamic extremist group allied with AlQaida and based in Somalia, claimed responsibility for the carnage at the hotel. Joseph Spindler said his son worked across from the complex and ate frequently at a café there.
On Tuesday in Nairobi, extremists stormed the luxury compound with guns and explosives, beginning a coordinated assault with an explosion targeting three vehicles outside a bank and a suicide bombing in the hotel lobby, Kenyan officials said.
In addition to Jason Spindler, the civilian victims included 16 Kenyans, one British citizen and three people of African descent whose nationalities were not immediately known, police said.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta announced the end of the all-night operation early Wednesday, saying all five extremists had been killed.
“We will seek out every person that was involved in the funding, planning and execution of this heinous act,” he said.
Spindler was the cofounder and chief executive of I-DEV International, a California company that matches investors to emerging markets in Latin America, Africa, Asia and South Asia. Spindler had lived in Kenya for the last several years, his father said.
He grew up in Houston but graduated from high school at Hebron Academy, a boarding school in Maine, the school confirmed Wednesday.
Spindler got his undergraduate degree in finance in 2000 from the McCombs School of Business at UTAustin. He later attended New York University School of Law and graduated in 2009.
He worked as an investment banker for three years, from 2000-2003, at Salomon Smith Barney/Citigroup, helping global tech/ telecom companies raise $50 billion in capital, according to his biography on the I-DEV website and his LinkedIn page.
He also led buyouts and acquisitions of manufacturing and operating companies at AlixPartners’ private equity fund for two years, from 2003-2005, according to the website and LinkedIn.
He joined the Peace Corps in 2005, working for one year as a business and economic development volunteer in Peru, where he led the growth of a $7 billion locally owned agriculture business, the company website says.
Spindler’s mother, Sarah Spindler, said in a phone interview with NBC News Tuesday night that her son “was trying to make positive change in the third world in emerging markets.”
“We all miss him so much. And it’s so sad that such a bright young person is taken away by terrorism,” his mother said.
On Wednesday, the Spindler family was on the way to Kenya to retrieve his body, his father said.
He’ll be flown back to Houston next week, after the birthday celebration, with burial set for Thursday.
“There’s no question in my mind that when he heard the first explosion, he wanted to be helping people.” Kevin Yu, a college friend