Description
Starkey Hearing Technologies is an American privately owned company based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota that makes hearing aids, and is one of the largest hearing aid manufacturers in the world.
As of 2019, the company had more than 5,000 employees in 24 facilities, serving more than 100 markets worldwide, and is the only American-owned global hearing aid manufacturer.
History
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, Ruzicka 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.
