Health Care Hall of Fame Past Inductees
William B. Graham
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Inducted in 1993
In 1945, at the age of 33, Graham joined Baxter Laboratories, which is now known as Baxter International. Although Graham had never worked in the healthcare industry, Baxter's co-founder and president at the time hired Graham as vice president and manager. Eight years later, Graham would become CEO of the company, a position he would hold for nearly three decades. Under his leadership, Baxter grew into an international medical supplies company with commercial sales of $1.3 billion. And under his watch the company produced such innovations as the first commercially built artificial kidney (1953) and the first commercial heart-lung bypass device for open heart surgery (1962).