RLI Taking the Lead Podcast

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Dr. Krestin has been married for almost 43 years. They were both studying medicine and married in their last year of medical school in Cologne. His wife, Marina, is an occupational physician now with KLM. Together, they have two children; Marc, now 40 who is a lawyer, and Ruth, 37, who is an MIT graduate and now in a leadership position in a French biotech. They both have kids, and Drs. Krestin and his wife are proud to be grandparents of 5 wonderful grandchildren, aged 3 to 11. So, when they are all together it's quite busy.

Dr. Krestin’s hobbies are reading history books, art (not making but collecting, with focus on mainly geometric abstract and minimal art from the beginnings to contemporary and he and his wife have in the meanwhile quite a nice collection), traveling (they have a house in the south of France and love to be there but they travel a lot mainly in Europe), and they love hiking in the Swiss Alps. Dr. Krestin and Marina hope to seduce their grandchildren for this last passion, but some of them are still too young for that.

During medical school Dr. Krestin found cardiology exciting. He did his dissertation in cardiology and applied for residency. However, they didn't immediately have a position and suggested that he do 6-12 months of radiology as that would help him later as a cardiologist. But then, Dr. Krestin fell in love with radiology, particularly because it was not limited to an organ or organ system but covered almost all medicine, and because of the analytical approach to interpret images. Also, it was the starting years of new technologies like US, CT and later MRI that made it even more exciting.

Dr. Krestin likes good food and good wine. His wife cooks very well but he also loves to cook, particularly now that he has more time. “It's fun to go to the market and shop for good ingredients and then spend an afternoon in the kitchen preparing a 4-course dinner for friends” Dr. Krestin explains.

Dr. Krestin loves to drink a good Italian espresso and the best ones are found in Naples or Rome. A good glass of red wine is also a favorite and he also enjoys discovering new high quality wines at affordable prices. “Anyone can offer you a good bottle at $ 50-100, but finding an almost equally good one at below $ 20 is the real treat” describes Dr. Krestin.

On a rainy day, Dr. Krestin usually works. Even now after retirement, he is still working, though not as much. Then you don't have a bad feeling about missing something that you could do outside.