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In 1961, 19-year-old Willam F. Austin, or Bill Austin, began working in his uncle’s hearing aid repair shop with the hope of one day making an impact on the world. A few years later, he bought Starkey Laboratories for $13,000. Fast forward six decades, and Eden Prairie-based Starkey, the world’s largest American-owned hearing aid manufacturer, has more than 5,000 employees, operates 29 facilities and does business in more than 100 markets worldwide. Bill remains Starkey’s Owner and Chairman to this day.
Bill has revolutionized both the hearing aid and the hearing health industry. In the 1970s, Bill insisted on implementing a 90-day trial period, the first-ever in the industry, that allowed customers a window to return their products, if dissatisfied. His emphasis on first-rate care and vision of creating a hearing aid that could not only help people hear better, but also live better is now a reality with Livio AI, the world’s first hearing aid with artificial intelligence and integrated sensors that can detect a user’s social and physical activity levels. Built off this revolutionary technology, Starkey’s newest complete line of hearing aids, Evolv AI, not only emphasizes hearing’s impact on overall health and wellness, but creates an effortless user experience.
Through these advancements at Starkey, Bill Austin has solidified Minnesota as a hub of medtech innovation. To help celebrate a milestone of 60 years in the hearing industry, the office of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz declared Wednesday, February 10th, 2021 “William F. Austin and Starkey Day” in Minnesota.
Bill has a long legacy of helping the world hear. He founded Starkey Hearing Foundation in 1984 and has volunteered in more than 100 countries, providing short- and long-term hearing health resources to over one million people to date. Bill and his wife, Tani Austin, have remained connected to the communities and hearing health professionals they serve across the globe through ongoing after-care clinics and continued education for future hearing professionals at the Zambia-based Starkey Hearing Institute.
Through the 2021 launch of Starkey’s corporate social responsibility program, Bill continues to fulfill his lifelong passion for helping others by providing the necessary resources to treat hearing loss for local communities in need, veterans and active-duty military and our world. At Starkey, caring is a top value and is woven into every area of the company. Starkey’s passion for changing the world starts with product innovation and comes to life through the people and communities whose lives are forever made more vibrant as a result. Through a 2022 partnership with Special Olympics, Starkey Cares will be able to assist thousands of athletes with disabilities around the world with hearing health resources they may not have access to otherwise, along with training for hearing health professionals to assist them.
For his philanthropic work, Bill Austin has received numerous honors, including the Horatio Alger Award, Mexico’s Aztec Eagle Award, the Jefferson Award, the Albert Schweitzer Leadership Award, the National Caring Award, the Humanitarian Award from Variety International, the AG Bell Lifetime Achievement Award and the Tri-State Hearing Convention's Lifetime Achievement Award. At the United Nations in 2017, Bill Austin was named the first Goodwill Global Ambassador for Ear and Hearing Health.
Under the leadership of Bill Austin, Starkey has personally helped Mother Theresa and five U.S. presidents be fit with hearing aids, worked alongside the Dalai Lama and helped establish national hearing health plans with countless international leaders and diplomats, yet Bill has remained humble and focused on connecting individuals with hearing loss to the resources they need to reach their full potential.
Nomination Title: Bill Austin
