Jim Craig, a longtime supporter and vascular advocate, will deliver the annual keynote address for the 2025 Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM25), held in New Orleans, June 4-7 at the Morial Convention Center.
Craig is known as the goaltender for the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team and has been praised for his pivotal role in the "Miracle on Ice" victory.
“I'm delighted and honored to have an icon like Jimmy Craig as our speaker,” said Jason T. Lee, MD, chief of vascular surgery at Stanford University and Chair of the SVS Program Committee. “We can learn much from him about adversity, leadership, vulnerability and creating a positive culture. In today's operating rooms, our vascular teams can draw valuable lessons from successful leaders in other industries."
This year's keynote address is titled "Inside the Winning Operating Room: Building Trust, Leading Under Pressure, and Achieving Excellence as a Team." The talk will utilize a "Ted Talk" interview format, which Lee hopes will provide valuable insights and inspiration to attendees.
After years in the vascular space and collaboration with numerous vascular surgeons, Craig considers being selected as this year’s Keynote "the highest honor" and an opportunity to be part of a larger team. To Craig, success in the operating room relies on the entire team's efforts rather than on any single person's rank.
“It’s not just the vascular surgeon; it’s a whole team of people who must be prepared, organized and able to work together. They must also hold each other accountable and have the courage to speak up,” said Craig. He hopes the public will consider his message, inform their patients and have confidence in the individuals involved in the surgical process.
Craig's commitment to the vascular community is deeply personal.
Eight years after the 1980 Olympics, his father, Don, passed away from an undetected ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). After experiencing this tragedy, Craig dedicated his life to advocating for awareness and screenings for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA), a condition characterized by the expansion of the main abdominal artery. If untreated, an aneurysm can burst or rupture, which can be fatal. By educating himself about AAA, Craig encouraged his brother to get screened, leading to successful early detection of the condition. Ultimately, Craig's efforts played a crucial role in saving his brother's life.
Since 2007, he has been a leading spokesman for the Saving Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Very Effectively campaign, or the Ultimate SAAAVE.
Craig feels his father's absence weighs on his family to this day, knowing that his grandchildren never had the chance to meet their grandfather or that he couldn’t be a part of key moments in his family’s lives. He hopes to overcome the desensitization often experienced by medical professionals when giving these speeches.
“I hope they feel the joy of winning and the agony of losing. That’s important, and that's something that I want to get across,” said Craig.
After his professional career, Craig founded Gold Medal Strategies, a motivational speaking and relationship-based consulting company that facilitates organizational and team development.
Craig lives by a personal philosophy of living humbly and respectfully and appreciating the sacrifices that others make for him. He will convey that feeling to VAM attendees in New Orleans this summer.
He stresses the importance of conferences like VAM in creating proper programming to educate medical professionals and keep them informed about the latest advances in the field, ultimately saving lives on the operating table.
“Sometimes you’re put on this Earth and don’t know why or how this happened, but it was meant to be. I really feel as though this was meant to be, and now I have to make the most of this opportunity because it will save a life,” said Craig.
To register for VAM25, visit vascular.org/VAM.