Pisters hired as new chief at MD Anderson
Pisters says he’s looking forward to returning to work at cancer center
The UT System board of regents hires Dr. Peter Pisters as the next head of MD Anderson Cancer Center, less than six months after Dr. Ron DePinho was forced out.
The University of Texas System board of regents on Monday hired Dr. Peter Pisters as the next head of MD Anderson Cancer Center, less than six months after Dr. Ron DePinho was forced out after years of tumult at the elite Houston hospital.
At a meeting in Austin, the regents finalized the selection of Pisters, a surgeon and administrator who spent 20 years at MD Anderson before leaving in 2014 to become president of University Health Network in Toronto. Pisters was tapped for the job on Aug. 25, but regents had to wait 21 days under state law to make the appointment official.
“I look forward to reconnecting with so many former colleagues and connecting with new colleagues, all of whom are part of the most extraordinary team of cancer fighters,” Pisters wrote in an email sent to MD Anderson employees after the vote. “The honor of serving as your president is one that I both respect and am humbled by, and I will spare no effort in working with you
to build upon and extend MD Anderson’s unparalleled history of success.”
Pisters, 57, will become the fifth president in MD Anderson’s 76-year history.
Regents approved his hiring without comment.
Experience lauded
Dr. Ray Greenberg, the UT System’s executive vice chancellor for health affairs, touted Pister’s 20year devotion to the care of patients as a surgeon at MD Anderson and experience in Toronto leading “one of the most respected academic health centers in North America.”
“This combination of his clinical expertise, institutional knowledge, and servant leadership make Dr. Pisters the ideal person to take MD Anderson to the next level,” Greenberg said in a statement.
Under an offer letter signed Monday, Pisters will make a base salary of $1,439,100, plus $405,900 in supplemental pay, benefits and incentives.
Pisters will be tasked with bringing MD Anderson out of cultural and fiscal crises and navigating the complexities of a changing health care landscape. Under DePinho, faculty chafed at a perceived top-down management style, and the center suffered financial losses in 2016 that led to the January 2017 slashing of roughly 1,000 jobs. Finances have improved.
First hired in 1994
At MD Anderson, Pisters most recently was vice president of the institution’s regional care system. He came to the cancer center in 1994, from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, as an instructor in the department of surgical oncology. He rose in the ranks to become clinical consultant for its Center for Global Oncology and then medical director of its regional care centers.
Three years ago, he was lured back to Canada, where he grew up, to become president of UHN, a system of four major hospitals affiliated with the University of Toronto and funded by the government under a single-payer model.
Pisters will join MD Anderson in a full-time capacity this year, he wrote in his email. He added he will make several visits to MD Anderson before then, including next week when he will appear at a town hall.
Pisters called the appointment “one of the most memorable moments of my life” and added the center has “occupied a prominent place in my heart for more than two decades and to which I am so excited to return.”