Baxter International hires outsider as new CEO

Baxter International Inc. named Jose Almeida as its new chairman and CEO, effective Jan. 1.

The 53-year-old led Covidien PLC until January, when he helped to wrap up the sale of the medical supplies company.

Current CEO Robert Parkinson, who has headed Baxter since 2004, will retire and become chairman emeritus.

This week, Baxter International, which makes dialysis machines and medical products, announced plans to lay off 1,400 by the end of the year. The cuts amount to about 5 percent of its nonmanufacturing workforce.

Read more from the Wall Street Journal.