Alexandria, VA, March 9, 2006—Members of the Hearing Industries Association (HIA) met at the end of February to elect new leaders for the Association and affirm the organization's commitment to passage of a tax credit for hearing aid purchases.
Cathy Jones, of Phonak, was elected to the chairmanship of HIA, following a year of service as the organization's Vice Chair. In accepting the top leadership spot for the industry's trade association, Jones reflected on her broad-based career in the hearing aid industry and, based on her experience and her training as an audiologist, noted that her priorities would be industry relations, maximum levels of effort to pass the hearing aid tax credit legislation in this session of Congress and moving forward with "Exploring the Consumer's Journey," an initiative that HIA launched in conjunction with "Hearing on the Hill '05". Completing the HIA Executive Committee, Alan Dozier, GN ReSound, was elected Vice Chair and Jeff Taylor, Sonion was elected as Secretary/Treasurer. Randy Raymond, Spectrum Brands, concluded his chairmanship of HIA and will serve as Immediate Past Chairman and Carole Rogin continues as chief staff executive.
At the meeting, HIA awarded its fifth "Volunteerism Award" to Mikael Worning, Oticon. In presenting the award to Worning for his leadership to the Better Hearing Institute (BHI) over the past three years, Randy Raymond highlighted the three-year plan that he developed and implemented, the vision that he brought to the rebranding and restructuring of BHI, and the dedicated service with which he has guided the Institute. Raymond noted that Worning has agreed to serve in BHI's top leadership position for one more year, although his primary base with his company has moved to Europe.
Annual elections held at the meeting re-elected the following directors for two-year terms on the HIA Board of Directors: Alan Dozier, Cathy Jones, Randall Raymond, Jerry Ruzicka, Jeff Taylor and John Zei. Peer Lauritsen, Oticon, was elected to complete the term of Mikael Worning.
HIA, headquartered in Alexandria, VA, is the national trade association of manufacturers of hearing aids, implantable hearing devices, assistive listening devices, component parts and power sources for amplification devices.
