My inspiration comes from the people who taught me how to be an academic surgeon and hospital administrator, how to lead, and how to apply those skills on the global stage. It also comes from my family and especially my late father who instilled in me the confidence and spirit of academic pursuits.

There are a few mentors that immediately come to mind. Hazim Safi is the classic surgeon. Big personality, incredible leader. Hazim has saved so many lives. He was the surgeon I looked up to as a young student. Fred Moore is an extraordinary trauma surgeon. He taught me about process, how to make it all happen. Today we do algorithms—Fred was doing them in the 90s.

Julie Freischlag was the first female chair of surgery at Johns Hopkins. She came into a field and department where there were a lot of powerful men and turned it into the best and most diverse surgical department in the United States. For me, modern era of surgery starts with Julie Freischlag.

Mohan Chellappa is the granddaddy of international business. He meets you where you're at in a way that no one else can do. He knows everybody and remembers everything. He's just brilliant at getting to the deal. And Steve Thompson. He is the voice to management. Steve understands how different people think and he gets to the message in a way that everyone can connect with.

We’re in a complex field that bridges very diverse cultures. For me, it comes down to being authentic. Whenever I can, I'm going to tell you how I see it or feel it. Sometimes, that’s difficult for people. Not everyone wants that level of frankness.

My trust in authenticity comes from a combination of my natural personality and growing up in the prototypical hard working immigrant family. There wasn’t a lot of passivity! I try to meet everyone where they are, to be true to myself but also diplomatic when the situation calls for it. I’m an Aramco brat and if you know what that is, you pretty much know of who I am. We were Americans living and working in this melting pot in the early days of Saudi Arabia, in the middle of the desert, and we worked together to recreate a uniquely American environment where everyone thrived while we produced oil for the world.

Taking the leap from surgery into global healthcare. It’s not that I was unhappy at the time. The opposite—I love being a surgeon. I had the good fortune to get one of the top vascular fellowships in the country at Northwestern, then Julie Freischlag brought me in at Hopkins. I had terrific funding from NIH, received the Lifeline Award—it was all very satisfying. But somewhere inside I had this desire to get into international. It was instinctive. Somehow, I knew it was my future. There were plenty of good people around me telling me I was crazy. They thought it was a huge mistake to take everything I had put into academic surgery and give it all up for an unknown. So it was definitely a risk, probably the biggest one I’ve ever taken. But it has worked out in every way I could have hoped. I’ve found the balance that works for me.

Think and act globally. It’s easy to fall into the habit of seeing things from our own local perspective. That’s a natural reaction to our day-to-day challenges—what’s best for my organization, how will this affect my team?

Americans bring a lot to the table, but we also tend to see ourselves as the center of the universe. I want people to look beyond the here and now, to remember how truly interconnected we all are. And there is no realm where our interconnectedness is more important than health. Amazing things happen when we bridge cultural divides to pool our knowledge and resources. That’s the legacy I’m after—for all of us in our field to ask ourselves “What is my role in healthcare for humanity globally?

Same principle. Teach our future leaders to think and act globally. We’re incredibly fortunate to be part of a field that exists to benefit the health and wellbeing of our fellow man, so we have to really focus our awareness and our resources on that goal. We need leaders with the courage to be passionate about what really matters. They don’t have to be perfect; they just have to take the skills and experience they have and be persistent. When you work hard and take chances, things open up in ways you couldn’t have foreseen.

There are four lessons I try to share whenever I can. First, know your customers and strive to understand and honor their values and traditions. Second, only sell products and services you can provide at a high level of quality. Third, teamwork—we are always better together. And fourth, change is inevitable, so our success will depend on our willingness to embrace the unknown.

One more thing: we need leaders with fortitude. We’re here to bring the highest possible level of healthcare to people where they live, and we have to have the fortitude to do whatever it takes to move us in that direction.

We’re currently in an era of global instability, which inevitably spills over and creates challenges in healthcare. Is turbulence in the world a new phenomenon? Absolutely not. We’ve seen these patterns throughout human history. Things come around in cycles— financial, pandemics, international strife. Specifically in the next few years, I think we’ll continue to see significant geopolitical turbulence. Eventually the world will come back around to a more stable dynamic—I’m sure of it—but in the meantime we need leaders who stay balanced and reasonable when things are unpredictable. We need to keep a sense of perspective. Beyond that, there is a lot on the plus side. We’re seeing revoltionary technologies emerge and they have tremendous potential for improving healthcare. If you step back and look past the uncertainty, there are huge reasons to be optimistic.

I come back to authenticity. You can get a lot done when you follow your instincts. So bring a sense of freedom to your life and take risks when you see oppotunities to make good things happen. Be bold—and, keep your feet on the ground. Care about people for who they are.

I believe in the fundamental importance of the family unit, showing resepct for your parents and grandparents. Whatever culture you live in, however governments or private sector impact daily life, family is the foundation for order and strucure.

I’m also not big on separating your personal life from your work life, separating who you are from what you do. Be that person with everything you do. Invite people into your life and share who you are. Let them know what matters to you—let them know they matter to you—so they feel enouraged to really be alive and take their own steps forward. In their own way, all my mentors have done that. That’s probably the most important thing I took from them.

I would tell my younger self to be patient. Just chill. Be patient with other people as they find their way and do the same for myself and my family and colleagues. Let mistakes happen. Don’t give up on people. Go through the seasons of life, through the successes and failures, and be grateful for the lessons you’re learning.

I have an emotional side people don’t usually see. And believe it or not, I’m actually a humble person, even if I don’t always seem like it. I really do know how small I am in the big scheme of things. Also, I was born in Portland so I’m an original tree-hugging Oregonian.