On September 11th, Akamai Technologies co-founder Daniel Lewin boarded American Airlines Flight 11, talking business with a co-worker until a stewardess made him turn off his cell phone. One row in front of him sat Mohammed Atta. “Danny,” a 31-year-old former commando in the Israeli army, tried to stop the hijackers, was knifed and killed, and the plane hit the building.
Dark days followed for the Boston-area Internet company already suffering from the burst tech bubble. The loss of the math wunderkind who invented the company’s technology to speed up the Internet came as the recession worsened.
But Akamai rallied around the memory of its tenacious leader, and “did it for Danny,” returning to profitability and growing into a $1b software company. His spirit still permeates company culture, the highest employee honor is named after him, to the point that even people who joined Akamai after 9/11 and never worked with Danny feel like they know him.
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Piece Description
On September 11th, Akamai Technologies co-founder Daniel Lewin boarded American Airlines Flight 11, talking business with a co-worker until a stewardess made him turn off his cell phone. One row in front of him sat Mohammed Atta. “Danny,” a 31-year-old former commando in the Israeli army, tried to stop the hijackers, was knifed and killed, and the plane hit the building.
Dark days followed for the Boston-area Internet company already suffering from the burst tech bubble. The loss of the math wunderkind who invented the company’s technology to speed up the Internet came as the recession worsened.
But Akamai rallied around the memory of its tenacious leader, and “did it for Danny,” returning to profitability and growing into a $1b software company. His spirit still permeates company culture, the highest employee honor is named after him, to the point that even people who joined Akamai after 9/11 and never worked with Danny feel like they know him.
Broadcast History
WBUR: 9/8/2011.
Transcript
STORY:
It doesn’t surpise anybody who knew Daniel Lewin that he would step in front of what was happening on that plane.
TODD DAGRES: I’m sure at some point it became clear to him what was going on. And I’m sure he acted. And I’m sure that someone on that plane – maybe more than one – paid. But he couldn’t get them all.
Todd Dagres is an investor in Akamai and remembers how Lewin was always out in front. He was a math wunderkind whose algorithms made the Internet faster. He was a billionare in his twenties. He was also a former commando.
His family moved to Israel from Colorado when Danny was a teenager. And his friend Marco Greenberg remembers when Danny was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces.
MARCO GREENBERG: And there was no question whether he would serve. And there was no question he would serve in a combat unit. And there was no question in his mind that he woul...
Read the full transcript
Intro and Outro
INTRO:Ten years ago [9/11/2001], the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history began when Mohammed Atta and four other terrorists hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles.
Sitting one row behind Atta was Daniel Lewin. The 31-year-old apparently tried to stop the terrorists as they were taking control of the plane. Lewin’s throat was slashed, probably by another terrorist one row behind him.
Lewin had been headed to a business meeting in his role as co-founder of Akamai [AWK-uh-my] Technologies, a Boston-area Internet company. Curt Nickisch [NICK-ish] has Lewin’s story, and how the company keeps his spirit alive ten years on.
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