By Pete Mercer
When a late-night call sparked a mission to Haiti, one healthcare leader discovered that true impact goes far beyond sales — and starts with saying yes.
Going above and beyond is often framed as a competitive advantage – a way to win business, earn trust or move ahead professionally. But sometimes, the most defining moments aren’t tied to quotas or promotions. They come when an unexpected opportunity demands more than your job description – and challenges you to step up in ways that change how you see your work and your impact.
That’s exactly what happened to Dean Calderone when a late-night phone call pulled him into the front lines of disaster relief following a devastating earthquake in Haiti. What began as a request for medical supplies quickly became something much bigger.
In an episode of the Road Warriors podcast, host Scott Adams spoke with Calderone, a Senior Manager in field distribution at Abbott, about how that moment reshaped his perspective on leadership, teamwork and the role every individual plays in patient care.
Making an impact
Calderone has been in healthcare sales for more than 20 years, building relationships and seeing the impact of his work grow over the years. One thing has stayed consistent throughout his years of service to the industry: the patient comes first. For him, the core of his leadership principles is a dedication to serving the patient through providing solutions to healthcare providers to take better care of their patients and get better outcomes.
In 2010, Calderone got a call from one of his customers at 11:00 p.m. about an earthquake in Haiti that devastated the already fragile infrastructure and killed over 250,000 people. This customer needed Calderone to find as many medical supplies as he could to supply the tent hospital that was being built in Port-au-Prince.
So, Calderone started to make some phone calls. He said, “That was the call to action. I just remember that I felt something I had never felt before, that if I stepped up here, I could have a big impact.”
While he was reaching out to his contacts, some of the doctors that were already at the tent hospital in Haiti reached out to him to better describe their needs and tell him about the reality of the situation. They were struggling with outdated equipment that wasn’t working properly, often found in storage closets in the U.S. and shipped down there as a “solution.”
Calderone’s network of people was able to procure a bunch of equipment, but one of his colleague’s pointed out that the people in Haiti would need to be trained on how to operate the equipment. “I called up the company that I was working at and said, ‘I’ve got something I need to do here. I need to take a little bit of personal time.’ They said, ‘Go for it.’”
From there, Calderone and a few of his colleagues flew down to Haiti to help. First, they repaired equipment, which is something he had never done before. He said, “All of a sudden, one anesthesia machine started working. One of the doctors had his fists up in the air after they started ventilating a little baby. It was a great feeling.”
Over the next few days, Calderone and his team spent time going through the football field of medical supplies in unmarked boxes to find ventilators. Once the ventilators were found, they assisted with ventilating people.
Developing a better perspective
This experience in Haiti helped to put Calderone’s role in healthcare into perspective – he said that in a time of crisis, there often aren’t enough first responders to manage the crisis. What Calderone learned is that it doesn’t matter who you are or what role you’re in, you can make a difference wherever you are.
“Everyone has a different skill set, but we are all part of the solution,” he said. “As individuals, we’re really important. There’s not one piece of the puzzle that’s more important than the next when it comes to delivering care to patients.”
No matter what part of the continuum you’re in, whether it’s R&D, finance, supply chain, distribution, or working at the front office of a physician’s office, you play a pivotal role in the broader picture of healthcare. For Calderone, this was an important lesson that he carries with him to this day, helping him make better leadership decisions for his team.
Calderone said, “Everyone in healthcare is a part of the puzzle, and everyone is equally important. With my team, knowing that you can’t complete the puzzle without us, it’s important for me to lead with purpose and passion. I always want to center the patient as the most important thing we do.”
Encouraging the industry
A huge part of leadership is using your lived experience to uplift and encourage others, especially those who are in your industry. When you have years of experience in a particular field, it allows for a perspective that others don’t have access to.
For Calderone, his experience in Haiti helped him to be better prepared for the disruptions and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Being thrown into the fire like the situation I had with Haiti helped me to prepare for things like COVID-19. I’ve been blessed to have some folks that are passionate like myself, both within my sales organization and throughout our entire business, that do whatever we can to step up and get things done. I’m just here to help provide the guidance and support for my team so that we can get it done.”
Today, Calderone volunteers when possible as a field operator during local disaster response efforts and provides leadership for the fundraising infrastructure of Grey Bull Rescue, a veteran-led private international rescue organization. Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, Grey Bull Rescue operates globally with a presence in what is known as the “Grey Space”—regions where the U.S. government has limited or no access. The organization specializes in planning and executing rescue and evacuation operations in denied or contested areas, including natural disasters, conflict zones, hostage situations, kidnapping cases, and other sensitive missions.
It’s easy to get lost in the details and responsibilities of one’s workload, especially sales. Hitting quotas is such an important aspect of the job, but it’s important to remember that each sale represents something greater than the number itself. It represents a patient.
“I think everyone needs to, from time to time, remember that while we’re out there chasing sales quotas and hitting quarterly numbers, remember how important all of this is,” Calderone said. “It’s about the patients and the people that we are ultimately touching. As we go out there and work with our customers every day, we need to remember that we all have something to give.”