As the President and CEO of Starkey, the global leader in hearing technology innovation, Brandon Sawalich’s mindset has one direction: Forward.
Brandon started working in Starkey’s hearing aid repair department nearly 30 years ago, and he has worked in virtually every corner of the business since, learning every aspect of the hearing health care industry, including what patients and hearing professionals expect from the technology Starkey creates.

Now, a new generation at Starkey has arrived. Brandon’s vision for Starkey and its more than 5,000 employees around the world is not to be the biggest; it is to be the best. That starts with product performance, operational excellence and best-in-class customer service. In February 2023, Starkey unveiled the world’s most advanced hearing aid and the industry’s flagship product. 

Dr. Alicia D.D. Spoor’s professional career has been firmly focused on assisting people of all ages. She began working at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona in 2005 while earning her doctorate of audiology degree. Upon graduation, Dr. Spoor accepted a full-time position as an audiology doctor with the Mayo Clinic’s cochlear implant and hearing aid teams. She later moved to Maryland and worked as an audiologist in two local practices, providing a range of services to patients, including tinnitus diagnosis and management, hearing aid programming and fitting, and custom earmold fittings.

Dr. Spoor has subjective tinnitus, which leads her to treat patients the way she would want to be treated. Designer Audiology was born out of Dr. Spoor’s passion for delivering person-focused audiological care to her patients.

As Chief Hearing Health Officer, Dave Fabry, Ph.D., studies and educates on the link between hearing loss and other health issues such as dementia, depression, and overall well-being. He works closely with the clinical audiology department to develop innovations to best meet patient needs, as well as with our engineering and marketing teams to help Starkey continue to design and provide superior products with the understanding that hearing care is health care.

Dave Fabry received his Ph.D. in hearing science from the University of Minnesota. Subsequently, he divided his career between academic/clinical roles at the Mayo Clinic, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the University of Miami Medical Center, and several industry positions. He served as President and Board Member of the American Academy of Audiology and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Auditory Society.

Dr. Darrow's mission is to improve your health, wellness, and ability to actively age through the medical treatment of hearing loss and tinnitus.

He is the Director and Founder of the Hearing and Brain Centers of America as well as the Excellence in Audiology network of offices throughout the country. Every day at these offices, he contributes to patients learning more about preventing decline through the medical treatment of their hearing loss and tinnitus.

Robert DiSogra, AuD, has dedicated the majority of his career to promoting an understanding of the pharmacologic effects on hearing and balance among audiologists around the world. While teaching at Rutgers University over 25 years ago he questioned why his patients had clinical complaints of hearing loss, yet their test data showed no evidence of peripheral loss. He then went beyond his clinical practice to initiate an unprecedented review of evidence that identified the influences of pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals on hearing loss and tinnitus.

In a series of publications for audiologists over the past 20 plus years, Dr. DiSogra distinguished his audiology career by identifying over 400 adverse auditory/vestibular side effects related to more than 2000 drugs. He later developed and taught the pharmacology/ototoxicity distance-learning course while pursuing his own degree at Salus University.

Joel is a seasoned executive with over 30 years of leadership and executive experience in the Technology sector, guiding teams across functional areas focused on delivering products and services to customers. His management experience includes enterprise, start-ups and agency organizations, working with F500 customers as well as small businesses. His specialty is the development of optimal growth strategies based on metrics and analysis.

Joel is a huge outdoors guy, skiing, cycling, fly fishing and hiking as much as possible. Climbing peaks in Glacier Park is his passion, and he has bagged many summits.