Guggenberger had worked at Starkey for 29 years. His attorney, Mark Briol, is quoted in the Star-Tribune report as saying, “My client didn’t want to leave the company…He had no intention of doing anything against the company. He was not feathering his own nest. He was not looking to compete with Starkey. He was not going anywhere. He [still] had a 13-year contract worth $375,000 each year. It was Jerry who was the one who was looking.”
As reported in The Hearing Review, Starkey also terminated the employment of CFO Scott Nelson and Senior VP of Human Resources Larry Miller on September 9, the same day they fired Ruzicka and Guggenberger. Additionally, Miller’s wife, Julie, who was the executive assistant to Ruzicka, and another executive assistant, Kim Mohlis, were fired. Four days later, the company terminated the employment of Jeff Longtain, president of the Starkey-owned network, Northland Hearing Centers in Clackamas, Ore, and Susan Good, the long-time senior director of the Starkey Medical Partner Network, a division that facilitates dispenser partnerships with ENTs.
Ruzicka helped remold Starkey into a technology-centered company since taking the reigns as president in 1998, freeing Austin to concentrate more on his love for fitting hearing aids and helping people throughout the world via the Starkey Hearing Foundation. Together with Guggenberger, Ruzicka is largely credited with helping build Starkey’s hearing aid business to one with $800 million in annual revenue, according to the Star Tribune article.
In reply to the comment from John Franks: 1986 was a long time ago maybe you should learn to move on. Everyone is coming and going in the industry.
Flashback to 1986 when I was fired with no notice and no reason for firing given. I was the Manager of Starkey Texas, which I had built from nothing with long-distance support from Starkey and two technicians. When I was fired, we had grown Starkey Texas into the second largest regional operation and had the best quality in all of Starkeydom. A relative of Bill’s decided he wanted in once it was profitable, after initially deciding he wanted no part of the operation. As an aside, many Starkey execs changed their official residence to Texas from Minnesota since Texas has no income tax. So, after 18 months of building the business, it was goodbye. Further, when Starkey bought our operation, Tracoustics Medical Instruments, Bill pledged that he would leave us alone and not start a hearing aid operation in our facility. That lasted three months, and eventually TMI was closed (and also many of its employees were fired). Last, I was forced to reassign a black woman who was our receptionist because Starkey didn’t want her voice representing Starkey Texas – I was able to give her a pay raise in her new job, but she left shortly afterwards. Maybe I should have sued, but we had no employment contracts.
Is Starkey Foundation listed as a member of the Better Business Bureau?
According to the bbb.org website, it did not meet the required Standards for Charity Accountability. Here is the link to that page: http://give.org/charity-reviews/national/health/starkey-hearing-foundation-in-eden-prairie-mn-2606
BBB is a paid service. If you don’t pay you’re not listed, so BBB means nothing.