President & Director, Lemaitre Vascular
Search every verified David Roberts interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. David Roberts, President and Director at Lemaitre Vascular, has been active in medical education and community development. In a November 2024 podcast with the University of Florida Department of Emergency Medicine, Roberts discussed his background as a former Olympic pole vaulter, including winning a bronze medal at the 1976 Montreal Games and setting a world record in 1976. He described his transition to medicine, noting he graduated in 1973, completed prerequisites at the University of Florida, and entered medical school on his first try. Roberts also spoke about his role as interim assistant program director for the residency program and emphasized the importance of camaraderie in both athletics and emergency medicine. In a September 2024 interview as capital projects manager for Woodland Pond, Roberts discussed his approach to renovation projects, advocating for careful planning and phased construction. He referenced his experience collaborating with tradespeople on a celebrity home project, stating he learned to "collaborate with people and end up with a better solution." Roberts has also spoken about the power of vision in business, asserting that vision fuels wellness and that individuals should clarify their own goals rather than serving "injected goals." In a 2012 TEDx talk, he argued that climate change emissions must peak and begin falling within 5-10 years to stabilize global temperatures, and he described the challenge as being "stuck between the impossible and the unthinkable."
“I think what I see the potential for this project is really adding to everyone's amenity and enjoyment and providing facilities that aid that on a really on a daily basis, you know, so that you know and if you look at the different components that you know whether it's dining or wellness and health and fitness that tho...”
“I think the way to do this is to plan first and then the building the actual construction process will go as smoothly as we possibly can make it happen.”
“Michelle has engaged consultants who have been here before, then this is before I came on, like you know the developer Greystone and gotten very good advice financial advice but also development advice and that has been the sort of mo right from the start is to do this properly and not just jump in.”
“It's really about listening to people and figuring it out together. I think you this morning at president's council Dave did give us an update a little bit more details and we need to go here but I think one of the things that I learned was being associated with Dave and Tom on this trip to Jefferson's Ferry is you cam...”
“Earlier in my career I was designing and running a project at the same time a house for a very well-known celebrity and I was on site every day and up until that point in my career I had thought you know I'm the architect I'm the leader I'm meant to know everything and it was such a relief to be on site and with the ca...”
“I'm from Oklahoma ... I started pole vaulting in the backyard I was about 11 years old and I was high jumping and I was rotten at high jumping so one day I got a fence pole ... I said I'm gonna try to pole vault that and it worked and it just kind of took off from there.”
“It actually worked pretty well because you sit and study all day and you're going crazy climbing the walls, you go out there and do this kind of intense physical thing and it just clears your brain and then you can come study somewhere — they actually work synergistically.”
“One of my poles broke at the trials and the piece stuck in a ceiling 40 feet high; my right arm went dead and there was no other pole to use until my buddy Earl Bell lent me his pole so I could finish — I won and set the world record on his pole.”
“There was a three-way tie for the gold in Montreal and I got the bronze based on a rule; I wasn't that into the Olympics personally but I was determined to do as well as I could and I was very happy with what I did.”
“I graduated in '73 and decided I wanted to try med school, so I stayed an extra year to get prerequisites, moved to the University of Florida as a grad student in zoology to get my pre-reqs, and then managed to get into med school on my first try.”
“Once you get to a certain level of fitness you don't have to do a lot to stay there; I learned to not overtrain and when I stopped overtraining my performance improved.”
“The real message in the sport is camaraderie — everyone helps each other, cheering competitors on; being happy for your competitors is what it's all about.”
“During COVID I bought an Olympic bar and a squat rack, started squatting again after decades and my hip improved — I even returned to running and now put in large weekly mileage; strength training really helped my recovery.”
“My favorite thing about University of Florida emergency medicine is the family atmosphere — we take care of urgent things but we also check on our friends and colleagues and have great nursing and support staff relationships.”
“We're both vegetarians and have been off and on for most of the last 40 years; I think nutrition made at least as much difference as training when I was competing, even if that's an N of one.”
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