Managing Director & Founding Partner (New York & Peru)
Jason Spindler is Managing Director and Founding Partner in I-DEV International. He founded the firm after years of experience in both the business and international development sectors. Prior to starting I-DEV, Jason worked in investment banking for Citigroup’s Debt Capital Markets Group. He also worked with Citigroup’s workout and recovery group to manage and rebuild the bank’s distressed investments. He later joined Questor Management Partners, the private equity arm of the operations-based turnaround and restructuring firm, AlixPartners. At Questor, Jason played an active role in developing investment strategy and managing all aspects of the firm’s portfolio companies.
From Questor, Jason began his transition to the development field by joining the U.S. Peace Corps as a Business and Economic Development Volunteer in Peru. While in Peru, he served as Interim-Director and advisor to the Board of Directors of Asociacion Civil Tierra, an internationally funded NGO focused on developing local agro-industrial businesses. He worked to develop AC Tierra’s long-term strategy for sustainability, and spearhead the organization’s transition from a traditional non-profit organization, dependent on external financing, to a for-profit manufacturing business, owned and operated by local farmers.
Over the years, Jason has worked with and advised a number of leading organizations in the social entrepreneurship sector, including the Acumen Fund, Ashoka India, and InSite New York. Jason has consulted on sustainable economic development around the world, and is an expert in economic development best practices and innovation in countries including China, Singapore, Jakarta and Aceh, Indonesia, Northern Vietnam, India, and Peru.
Jason graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with degrees in International Finance and Development Economics. He did his graduate studies at New York University School of Law, where he focused on International Development Policy and Social Venture Capital. While at NYU, Jason was awarded the prestigious Catherine B. Reynolds Fellowship for Innovation in Social Entrepreneurship, a joint fellowship between Harvard and NYU, for his work with for-profit, sustainable economic development initiatives. Jason also received the 2009 Helton Global Human Rights Fellowship for his cutting edge work linking in economic development to full citizenship and human rights.