History
Early years
In 1967, William F. Austin, William F. "Bill" Austin started a small hearing aid repair store after dropping out of medical school. In 1970, he purchased an ear mold company called Starkey Labs for $13,000. Starkey started manufacturing hearing aids, offering the industry's first 90-day trial period.1980–present
In 1983, the company's sales doubled when Ronald Reagan started wearing its hearing aids while he was president, which caused a manufacturing crisis at the company to meet demand. Austin has personally assisted five U.S. presidents, two popes, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela and other notable leaders with Starkey hearing aids. In 2015, Austin fired Starkey's then-president, Jerry Ruzicka, along with a handful of senior managers. A year later, in September 2016, federal prosecutors charged Ruzicka and four others with stealing more than $20 million from Starkey and a supplier since 2006. During the trial, Austin, who was not charged, provided false testimony to the court, causing some of his statements to be stricken from the record. In March 2018, Rusicka was found guilty of eight charges, including mail and wire fraud, and in December 2018 was sentenced to seven years in prison. In 2016, the company reported that its business was strong despite the disruption caused by the embezzlement, with sales of $800 million the prior year. A report in the ''Star Tribune'' noted that Starkey faced challenges at that time; its number of new patent filings had fallen, it had slipped to second place in sales to the Veteran's Administration, a key market for hearing aid companies, and sales of hearing aids to consumers were shifting more to big box stores such as Costco or proprietary dealerships, but Starkey was committed to selling directly to independent audiologists. In July 2017, Brandon Sawalich, Austin's stepson who joined Starkey in 1994, was named company president, succeeding Austin, who retained the role of CEO. In the summer of 2017, Achintya Bhowmik joined the company as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). According to Forbes, in 1992 Starkey’s sales had reached nearly $200 million; by 2018 sales were an estimated $850 million a year.Products
Current product line
As of October 2019, the company offers ten different hearing aid devices and several accessories. The devices include: * Hearing & activity tracking * Smartphone compatible * Invisible products * Receiver-in-canal * Completely-in-canal * Behind-the-ear-ear * In-the-canal * In-the-ear * Tinnitus relief * Single-sided hearingRecent developments and accessories
In 2014, Starkey introduced ''Halo'', a hearing aid that works with the iPhone and an associated app.Starkey Hearing Foundation
According to the World Health Organization, as of 2019, approximately 466 million people worldwide, including 34 million children, have disabling hearing loss. One of WHO's responses has been to build partnerships "to develop strong hearing care programmes." To address hearing loss facing those in developing nations, in 1984 Austin and his spouse, Tani Austin, founded the Starkey Hearing Foundation. Together, they have been active in "building sustainable, community-based systems of hearing healthcare around the world to empower local communities and ensure the people helped are able to achieve their full potential in life." In 2015, Tani Austin was honored at the United Nations by the United States Federation for Middle East Peace as Female Philanthropist of the Year. To help raise funds, the foundation holds an annual gala that is attended by various celebrities. As of 2017, the foundation had donated one million hearing aids to those in need around the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Starkey suspended its Hear Now Program and is yet to release a date to resume services.References
External links