New Yorkers were dismayed to get up to the news of a young Citi banker, Jessica Fashano, taking her life on Saturday by jumping off the roof of an Upper West Side building.
Fashano was an associate at Citi Global Markets, and was passionate about philanthropy and charitable giving, frequently leading those initiatives at the bank.
A close friend said that Fashano aspired to work full-time for a private nonprofit after "accumulating more skills in finance,".
A former Citi M&A analyst who worked with her said Fashano "had one of the biggest hearts that I knew.”
Fashano's love in life was intelligibly charity. She helped ascent money for Neediest Cases Fund, for the Acumen Fund (which makes small-business loans to people in developing countries) & for Harboring Hearts Housing, which provides low-priced accommodation to cardiac patients.
The 27-year-old left no note, though friends and family said she had been suffering from depression.
Her body was found at 8:13 a.m. on Saturday, in an internal tribunal of Trump Place - a highlife apartment complex on Riverside Boulevard where Fashano did not live.
The last person to see her alive was a Trump Place resident, who rode in the lift with her. "Dressed for the cold in Ugg boots and a winter jacket, Ms. Fashano asked the woman how to get to the roof — which has views of the Hudson River and New Jersey, where Ms. Fashano grew up. The resident... said Ms. Fashano seemed warning signal and mindful,".
Fashano grew up in Morris Plains, New Jersey. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Georgetown's McDonough School of Business in 2005, and also studied at Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Seville, Spain. At Georgetown she majored in Finance and International Business, & minored in Spanish.
One of her closest friend's undelineated her as a leader who "had everything organized." "Jessica was an amazing person with such a big heart . . . a beautiful girl, with a contagious laugh and a willingness to give back," said Michelle Javian, 27, who had been pals with Fashano since Georgetown."
Her laugh was obviously one of her most endearing and memorable qualities: “If there was a room of 30 or 40 people, you would definitely know if she was there or not,” a former colleague told that, “I don’t want to say louder, but she had a very unique laugh.”
Others who knew her say she was tolerant, had a warm, infectious smile, a beautiful spirit and inspirational leadership qualities.
Her major philanthropic influence was a memoir called "The Blue Sweater,” about using entrepreneurship to fight exiguity.