In Dr Schaff’s exceedingly generous introduction, you have learned more than you need to know about this 60-year-old smiling public man. These introductions often evoke 2 reactions: of predestination and inevitability, looking back, or uncertainty, even impossibility, when trying to imagine looking forward from the past. I score myself highly on the impossibilities. Not that many years ago, I stood in the back of this meeting and very sincerely doubted that I would ever be a member, let alone your President, and for this miracle I am humbly grateful to you all—and, like everyone who has stood here before, I owe much of my good fortune to many, many others, who I cannot begin to enumerate. A select few include my administrative staff (Figure 1), our physician’s assistants (Figure 2), the cardiac anesthesia team (Figure 3), and the perfusion team (Figure 4). Seymour Schwartz is an amazing, multitalented man who convinced me to train at Columbia Presbyterian—once he accepted that I could not be dissuaded from what he called ‘‘that cardiac junk’’ (Figure 5). At Columbia, I had the good fortune to be trained by many outstanding surgeons—Henry Spotnitz, Tom King, and Fred Jaretzki and, in very special ways, by Eric Rose and Fred Bowman (Figure 6). I also had the privilege of training under 2 previous American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) presidents, Jim Malm and Keith Reemtsma (Figure 7). Dr Malm was my host at my first AATS meeting, and I am honored that he and Connie are here today. Standing out, even among these standouts, are the 4 people who make it all work every day, and I am flattered that Angie, Suzanne, Dana, and Larry are also here today (Figure 8). Last, but not least, I thank the outstanding group of