Richard J. Meelia Elected Chairman of Haemonetics Board of Directors

Haemonetics Corporation HAE announced today that its Board of Directors elected Rich Meelia to join the Board and assume the role of Chairman, effective immediately.  Meelia, 62, will retire as Covidien plc's President and Chief Executive Officer on July 1, 2011. He will remain as Non-Executive Chairman of Covidien.  Prior to serving as Covidien's Chief Executive Officer, Meelia was President and Chief Executive Officer of Tyco Healthcare and President of Kendal Healthcare Products Company, the foundation of both the Tyco Healthcare business and Covidien. Mr. Meelia, who has close to 40 years of healthcare industry experience, formerly served on the Haemonetics Board from 2005-2009. He resigned to focus on his CEO responsibilities at Covidien. Early in his career, he was promoted through a series of sales and marketing positions at the Pharmaseal and McGaw divisions of American Hospital Supply, where he ultimately became Vice President of Sales and Marketing.  Following his career at American Hospital Supply, and before joining Kendal Healthcare, Mr. Meelia was President of Infusaid, Inc. a $30 million division of Pfizer that marketed implantable infusion pumps and ports.