Executive accolades
Leading Houston healthcare executive named one of America's top CEOs
Houston-based MD Anderson regularly garners praise for its breakthrough cancer treatments. Now, its leader is garnering attention as one of the country's top CEOs.
Dr. Peter Pisters, who’s been president of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston since 2017, is among the honorees in Glassdoor’s annual Employees’ Choice Awards, recognizing the top 100 CEOs of 2019. Pisters ranks 47th on the list, with an impressive 94 percent approval rating from his employees. He appears in the category for large employers.
In a letter sent to faculty and staff after he was named to the position, Pisters wrote that he looked forward to collaborating with his new MD Anderson colleagues on the hospital’s “profound purpose” of wiping out cancer.
“My promise to you is we will do so with a strong moral compass and principles of values-based servant leadership,” Pisters wrote. “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.”
Sitting atop the Glassdoor list of CEOs at large employers is Pat Gelsinger, CEO of VMWare. Charles Butt, chairman and CEO of San Antonio-based H-E-B, is in second place, followed by In-N-Out Burger’s Lynsi Snyder, T-Mobile’s John Legere, and Adobe’s Shantanu Narayen.
“Under [Butt’s] leadership, the desire to constantly innovate has led to new store concepts, the creation of one of the most successful private label programs in the country, and the commitment to build out state-of-the-art digital products and services to complement H-E-B’s world-class stores,” the company says in a release about the Glassdoor recognition.
The remaining Texans on the Glassdoor list are all from the Dallas area: Gary Kelly, chairman and CEO of Dallas-based Southwest Airlines; Peter Strebel, president of Dallas-based Omni Hotels & Resorts; and Steve Barick, chief operating officer of Irving-based Highgate Hotels, all in the category for large employers.
Kelly, who has worked at Southwest for more than 30 years, is the highest ranked CEO in Dallas, landing at No. 35 with an approval rating of 95 percent.
At No. 58 is Strebel, who garnered an approval rating of 94 percent. He’s a longtime employee of Omni; in 2018, he was promoted to president.
Barick, the longtime chief operating officer of Irving-based Highgate Hotels, claims the 97th spot with an approval rating of 90 percent.
