Todd Mann
CEO of South Texas Health System, McAllen
1) What is your favorite book? The Lady or The Tiger by Frank R. Stockton. Most of the time a book is driven to tell you something. Anyone can read it and will interpret it differently but the end result is always there for you. The Lady or The Tiger does not give you that option. The book ends and you don’t know whether he gets the lady or the tiger. It leaves you with an empty feeling of what it is but allows you to create your own ending in your mind. That book has always stuck with me.
2) What is your favorite movie? I’m not a movie buff, but probably the original Star Wars. It was so revolutionary and was something we hadn’t seen. Probably second to that would be Planet of the Apes. It’s just amazing you can watch that today and the characters are so real. The thought that someone would sit down and write that, think through it with the characters they were going to make. It was unique and creative.
3) What was your favorite vacation spot? That’s tough. When you measure vacations it’s usually who you’re with and what you did. The spot is just an enhancement to that and not the predominant part of the trip. I’m going to say Aruba, only because that’s where I went for my honeymoon. In that spot, I had all of it. I had the beauty of where we were plus the beauty of my wife and her company.
4) What is your life’s motto? Be fair and do right by others. If we would just all do that, wouldn’t we have a different way of life?
5) Where were you born? Winter Park, Florida, but I grew up here in McAllen. My family left Winter Park when I was an infant.
6) What was a life-changing event in your life? Probably meeting my wife here in the Valley. It was the point in time when you meet the right person. Everything felt right. I met my best friend who is now my wife. We do everything together. A lot of things that were pieced out in my life came together with one person.
7) What makes you laugh? I laugh a lot. I think that’s healthy. There are a lot of things that make me laugh. Good humor and unintended circumstances where no one is hurt, like America’s Funniest Videos. That cracks me up.
8) What is the happiest thing for you to think about? Anything outdoors. I love to be outdoors.
9) What is the first thing you do each morning? I go get my only cup of coffee for the day.
10) What are any apps or other technology you use to get things done? Basically, email and texts are my worlds.
11) What is the question you most want answered? Why is there so much hate in the world? I’m not sure what drives people to that. I don’t understand how people can hate specific groups of people.
12) What is the last thing you do before going to bed? I tell my family good night.