Bill Austin, CEO of Starkey Hearing Technologies and Founder of The Starkey Hearing Foundation

Bill Austin is a man with a heart of gold. He is the epitome of a true humanitarian in every sense of the word. In 1973, he started the Starkey Hearing Fund. Austin’s inspiration to start the Starkey Hearing Foundation in 1984 came from the moving words of Albert Schweitzer: “The purpose of human life is to serve and show compassion and the will to help others”. Through the Starkey Foundation and Starkey Fund, Austin has not only donated more than 1,000,000 hearing aids to needy people in over 100 countries like the United States, Mexico, South Africa, Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi, Lesotho, Uganda, Ethiopia, Ukraine, Turkey, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Romania, Vietnam, Mozambique, India, Nepal, Papa New Guinea, Honduras, Egypt, Malaysia, Haiti, Colombia, Peru and El Salvador, but more importantly, has successfully developed ties of trust and has demonstrated unparallel caring in these communities. The foundation’s mission statement is a simple but powerful one: “So the World May Hear”. As described by Austin himself, life would be dead without sound. In essence, he is responsible for bringing new quality to the lives of hearing impaired individuals by allowing them the ability to fully participate in life. What a priceless gift!

Austin is also a man of great integrity who follows his philosopy on life and responsiblity. He is a man of action and not a man of empty words. “We treat hearing loss not the pocket book”, explains Austin. Any patient who cannot afford to purchase a hearing aid will be financially assisted by the Starkey Fund. Austin has fulfilled his dreams of impacting and creating a more peaceful and compassionate world!

On a professional level, Austin is always raising the bar in the hearing industry. In an endeavour to present the latest Starkey digital hearing aids, Austin organized a conference for 200 hearing aid professionals from Canada in September 2014 to visit Minneapolis, the home of Starkey headquarters. Austin and his wife Tani also graciously received them in their home. The conference provided an invaluable opportunity for professional development, thereby fostering better service to the hearing impaired community.

Thank you Mr. Austin for all that you do- from your humanitarian efforts to your professional accomplishments!