SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, DC 20549
FORM 8-K
Current Report Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of
The Securities Exchange Act of 1934
Date of Report (Date of Earliest Event Reported): October 22, 2002
HAEMONETICS CORPORATION
(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)
Massachusetts 1-10730 04-2882273
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(State or other jurisdiction of (Commission File (IRS Employer
incorporation or organization) Number) Identification Number)
400 Wood Road
Braintree, MA 02184
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(Address of principal executive (Zip Code)
offices)
Registrant's telephone number, including area code (781) 848-7100
Item 5. Other Events
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On October 22, 2002, Sir Stuart Burgess, Chairman of Haemonetics
Corporation (the "Company"), announced his intention to retire in March
2003 at the end of the Company's fiscal year. The Company simultaneously
announced that Ronald A. Matricaria, former CEO and Chairman of St. Jude
Medical Inc., has joined the Board today and will succeed Sir Stuart as
Chairman on April 1, 2003.
Item 7. Financial Statements and Exhibits.
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(c) Exhibits.
99.1 Press Release of the Company dated October 22, 2002
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SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934,
the Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by
the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.
HAEMONETICS CORPORATION
Date: October 22, 2002 By: s/Ronald J. Ryan
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Ronald J. Ryan, Senior Vice
President and Chief Financial
Officer
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Exhibit 99.1
FOR RELEASE: CONTACT:
Date: October 22, 2002 Lisa Lopez
Time: 1:00 pm (EST) Tel. (781) 356-9517
Alternate Tel. (617) 320-2401
fallon@haemonetics.com
HAEMONETICS ANNOUNCES CHAIRMAN SUCCESSION PLANS
RONALD A. MATRICARIA JOINS THE BOARD AS CHAIRMAN-DESIGNATE
BRAINTREE, MA, October 22, 2002 - Sir Stuart Burgess, Chairman of
Haemonetics Corporation (NYSE: HAE), today announced his intention to
retire in March 2003 at the end of the Company's fiscal year. Haemonetics
simultaneously announced that Ronald A. Matricaria, former CEO and Chairman
of St. Jude Medical Inc., has joined the Board today and will succeed Sir
Stuart as Chairman on April 1, 2003.
Sir Stuart has been a director of Haemonetics since 1992. He became
Chairman in 1998 and introduced important changes to both the Board and
management of the Company, which led to a marked improvement in
Haemonetics' performance. Haemonetics has enjoyed a successful period of
growth over the past several years, maintaining its leadership in automated
blood processing systems and achieving an underlying adjusted growth in
earnings per share that averaged 20% annually over the last three years.
Mr. Matricaria, 59 has had a highly successful thirty-five year career in
the healthcare industry. For the last nine years, Mr. Matricaria was
successively President and Chief Executive Officer and then Chairman of St
Jude Medical Inc. He led that Company's diversification strategy to become
a broad-based cardiovascular device company, which today is a world market
leader in cardiac surgery, cardiac rhythm management, and vascular closure
products and services. Prior to joining St. Jude Medical, Mr. Matricaria
spent 24 years at Eli Lilly and Company. His last position was as
President of North American Operations and Executive Vice President of the
pharmaceutical division. He also was President of Lilly International as
well as President of the medical device division, which was later spun off
as Guidant Corporation.
Mr. Matricaria has a Bachelor of Science degree and honorary Doctor of
Science degree from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy. He continues to
be a very active contributor to the advancement of healthcare technology
and serves as a Board Member of St. Jude Medical, Inc., Cyberonics, Inc.,
Cardiodynamic International Corp., and Endocare Inc. Mr. Matricaria was
recently the recipient of the In Vivo "Life Achievement Award," given out
each year to a healthcare executive who has made significant contributions
to the industry.
Sir Stuart commented, "This is an important transition and we have taken
great care in choosing my successor. I am delighted that Ron Matricaria
has joined us to become our next Chairman. His abilities and experience
are exactly what we need to lead Haemonetics through its next stages of
development and growth."
Haemonetics is a global company engaged in the design, manufacture and
worldwide marketing of automated blood processing systems. These systems
address important medical markets: surgical blood salvage, blood component
collections and plasma collections. To learn more about Haemonetics'
products and markets, visit the Company's web site at
http://www.haemonetics.com.