An American business investment adviser and former Peace Corps member was among those killed in a terror attack on a Kenyan hotel compound, the company he founded said Wednesday.
Jason Spindler, founder, CEO and managing director of I-DEV International, died in the attack on the DusitD2 compound, an upmarket cluster of shops and hotel facilities in the capital of Nairobi, his company said.
Armed men burst into the complex with gunfire and explosions Tuesday afternoon, killing at least 14 people in an attack that lasted hours and ended Wednesday morning, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said.
Spindler’s mother, Sarah Spindler, told NBC News on 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,” Sarah Spindler told NBC News.
I-DEV says it is a strategy and investment advisory firm that attempts to grow businesses in emerging markets.
Spindler, a University of Texas business graduate who received a doctoral law degree at New York University, once served in the US Peace Corps in northern Peru, where he “led the growth of a $7 million locally owned agribusiness,” a biography on I-DEV’s website says.
He also was an investment banker with Salomon Smith Barney/Citigroup, and had advised more than 100 small- or medium-sized businesses in emerging markets, his biography reads.
Spindler is warmly remembered by those who knew him at NYU, the university’s law school said Wednesday.
“His tragic death is a loss not only to his loved ones, but to the community of individuals dedicated to improving the lives of others through social enterprise,” the university’s statement reads.
