Nearly a year after stepping down as CEO at Haemonetics Corp. (NYSE:HAE), Brad Nutter cashed in another bloc of his holding’s in the blood management firm.

Nutter exercised just more than 173,000 options to purchase Haemonetics stock granted in July 2006 under a long-term incentive program for top executives. The options were priced at $41.15 a share and he promptly the sold the stock for $57 each — a $15.85-per-share profit resulting in net proceeds of nearly $2.75 million.

The shares sold this week were offered through a pre-arranged program Nutter established last year as he was wrapping up a six-year stint as CEO of the Braintree, Mass.-based manufacturer of blood collection and processing tools. The program — known as a 10b5-1 plan, named for the securities rule that authorized them — allows executives to systematically sell down holdings while avoiding perceptions they are acting on inside information.

Nutter similarly sold 100,000 Haemonetics shares for a $3.4 million profit in February 2009, six weeks before yielding the corner office to current CEO Brad Concannon. Nutter, who remains board chairman, still holds 264,000 options exercisable at between $52.76 to $54.55 a share. He also is paid an annual retainer of $24,000 and receives 6,000 options each year as a Haemonetics director.