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Yesterday I lost a longtime friend and mentor, Leo Hindery.

Leo lived many lives in one: race car driver, media mogul, progressive activist. As the publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle, he had the vision and compassion to assign Randy Shilts — then his star reporter — to “find out what’s happening to our friends.” That decision led to And the Band Played On, the landmark investigation that exposed how the AIDS epidemic was initially ignored.

Leo and I first met in Pakistan, where Leo led a delegation tasked with recommending how to reform — not destroy — USAID. He carried that same principle of constructive change into every sphere of his life.

A self‑made multimillionaire, Leo used his success to fight for fairness. He campaigned for the ultra‑wealthy to pay more taxes and carried the support of organized labor, which in fact cost him the chance to be Secretary of Commerce under the Obama Administration. His loyalty to those around him was legendary. Senator Tom Daschle lost his chance to become Obama’s health czar because Leo had let him use his limousine — a car Leo kept solely so he could employ his driver, whom he introduced as a good friend.

For me personally, Leo was the one who pushed me hardest to keep building my company in the most challenging moments. After 11 years, Prevail Communications Advisors stands because he told me not just to stay the course, but to believe deeply in the mission: helping societies to enable all their people to live in security and dignity by communicating with them with empathy and integrity.

I’m about to board a plane, and as Leo always did, I’ll sit in the front row — so, as he said, when you land, you can charge forward with purpose and energy.

Rest in peace, Leo. Your example and encouragement will keep guiding me and many others in the years ahead.

Leo Hindery, Jr. was a serial entrepreneur, fund manager, former public-company chairman and CEO, author, and philanthropist – and former race car driver.

Mr. Hindery served as Chairman and CEO of Trine Acquisition Corp., a NYSE-listed SPAC which went public in March 2019 and went effective with its merger with Desktop Mental, Inc. (NYSE: DM) in early 2021, and of a follow-on NYSE-listed SPAC under the Trine name that went public in the third quarter of 2021 and returned funds to its public investors in the second quarter of 2023.

In 1988, Mr. Hindery founded and ran as Managing Partner InterMedia Partners, a series of media industry investment funds. In February 1997 he was named President and CEO of Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI), then the world’s largest cable television system operator. In March 1999, TCI merged into AT&T and Mr. Hindery became President and CEO of AT&T Broadband.

In November 1999, Mr. Hindery was named Chairman and CEO of GlobalCenter Inc., a major Internet services company which fourteen months later merged into Exodus Communications, Inc. Following this merger, until October 2004, he was the founding Chairman and CEO of The YES Network, the regional television home of the New York Yankees, after which he reconstituted and ran InterMedia Partners until the founding of Trine.

Mr. Hindery, a member of the Cable Industry Hall of Fame and formerly Chairman of the National Cable Television Association and of C-SPAN, has been recognized as one of the cable industry’s “25 Most Influential Executives Over the Past 25 Years” and one of the “30 Individuals with the Most Significant Impact on Cable’s Early History.” A member of the Hall of Fame of the Minority Media & Telecom Council, he is distinguished by his decades of commitment to diversity and by his commitment to the development of ethnically sensitive programming.

Mr. Hindery has received the Joel A. Berger Award for his national leadership in AIDS and HIV initiatives, the Oates-Shrum Leadership Award of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, the Keeper of the Dream Award from the National Action Network for his efforts related to worker rights, the Individual Achievement Award of the Hispanic Federation, the Leader Award of the Progressive States Network, and the John Gardner Lifetime Achievement Award from Common Cause.

He was co-founder along with Russian Federation Council Chairman Sergey Mironov of Transatlantic Partners Against AIDS (TPAA) and recipient of the Asia Society’s Founders Award for his efforts in the international fight against AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. From 2005 through 2007, Mr. Hindery was Democrat-appointed Vice Chair of the Presidential & Congressional HELP Commission which made recommendations to Congress for the reform of U.S. foreign assistance.

Mr. Hindery was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Director of SeeCubic, Inc., and a Trustee of Sustainable Media Center.

Mr. Hindery earned an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and an undergraduate degree from Seattle University.

Once a race car driver, Mr. Hindery’s racing resumé includes a Class win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans (24 Heures du Mans) in 2005 and a Class second-place finish in 2003. He is a member of the NASCAR Winston West Hall of Fame.

Mr. Hindery is survived by his wife Patti Wheeler.