Bill Austin: The Runaway Billionaire forbesindia.com

Bill Austin built a fortune from medical devices, then set out on a crusade to help the poor hear. But while he was off hanging with movie stars and rock gods, his company descended into a cesspool of fraud, embezzlement and betrayal. A cautionary tale of a second act to do good–gone woefully bad.

Starkey CEO Bill Austin (centre) promoted Jerry Ruzicka (left) to become his company’s president in 1998. Ruzicka was fired in 2015 and replaced by Austin’s stepson Brandon Sawalich (right) in 2017. Red carpets are rare in St Paul, Minnesota. But last summer, Ben Affleck, Caitlyn Jenner, the first lady of Zambia and 1,500 other do-gooders filed into the Saint Paul RiverCentre to raise money for people in countries like Malaysia, Ghana and El Salvador to get hearing aids. Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler performed ‘Dream On’, but the gala’s ringleader, no doubt, was the billionaire Bill Austin. From under a cloud of white hair, Austin stood onstage, grinning, and thanked his fourth wife, Tani: “You have lifted me higher. You have allowed me to be part of a greater gift, to touch more lives than I ever could alone.”