Brandon Sawalich, senior vice president at Starkey Hearing Technologies, Minneapolis, Minn, has been elected to the Board of Directors for Special Olympics Minnesota (SOMN). Sawalich will join other members of the Board in working closely with SOMN’s management team to set strategy, support progress, and ensure the realization of the organization’s opportunities for service and the fulfillment of its obligations to all its constituencies.
“Brandon is a longtime supporter of Special Olympics Minnesota and we’re thrilled to be able to work even more closely with him to help guide our organization,” says David Dorn, president and chief executive officer of SOMN. “His business and philanthropy acumen from his years at Starkey Hearing Technologies, in addition to his passion for our mission, vision and values, make him an excellent addition to our Board of Directors.”
From jumping into icy lakes, to helping arrange free hearing aids and fittings for SOMN athletes, Sawalich is a hands-on partner and fundraiser for SOMN. In 2013, he participated in the inaugural Executive Challenge for the Polar Bear Plunge to benefit SOMN, in which 16 business leaders raised a minimum of $10,000 each for the opportunity to jump into a wintry Lake Calhoun in Minnesota. He repeated the effort this year. Additionally, Sawalich and Starkey Hearing Foundation have partnered with SOMN on its Healthy Hearing Initiative. In September, nearly two-dozen SOMN athletes and their families visited the Starkey headquarters in Eden Prairie to kick off the initiative. Each athlete was fit with top-of-the-line, customized hearing aids and met former Minnesota Viking Matt Blair.
“I look forward to taking my support of SOMN to the next level in this role on the Board of Directors,” says Sawalich. “I am passionate about this local organization and eager to help set strategy and realize new opportunities for the children and adults served by SOMN.”
Sawalich joined Starkey Hearing Technologies in 1994 as an inside sales executive. Since, he has built an expertise in sales and marketing in the hearing industry, and today leads Starkey’s sales, marketing and customer relations teams. Starkey says Sawalich has helped the company achieve overall growth and has built teams to tackle the challenges customers and patients face every day.
Source: Starkey Hearing Technologies