At 10 years old, I learned something that would shape everything that followed: when opportunity calls, you go. My parents, Dutch immigrants to Canada, instilled in me a willingness to take chances. That year, they uprooted our family from Ontario to Florida for my father's career, then moved us back four years later. Crossing borders in pursuit of opportunity felt entirely normal to me.

That instinct followed me into medicine. After graduating from Western's medical school, my wife and I were the only two in our graduating class who left for the United States. We spent nine years in New York City before moving to The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where I built a clinical and administrative career I expected to last a lifetime.

Then one unexpected email changed everything.

My sister-in-law sent me a Globe and Mail article about Dr. Robert Bell stepping down from the role of president and CEO at University Health Network (UHN) to become Ontario's Deputy Minister of Health. Bob and I had known each other professionally for years, so I did what I often do: I sent a brief note of congratulations.

Thirty minutes later, he replied: Peter, are you interested in the job?

Within eight months, I became the next president and CEO of UHN.

Had I not sent that two-line note, none of what followed would have happened – not UHN and not my return to UT MD Anderson as its fifth president.

“Careers are built on relationships. And it's the small gestures offered genuinely, with intention and without expectation, that keep those relationships alive.”

— Dr. Peter WT Pisters, MD'85, MHCM

Dr. Peter WT Pisters, MD'85, MHCM, is a board-certified surgeon, president of UT MD Anderson and author of nearly 400 peer-reviewed publications.