William J. Lankenau, President & Chief Executive Officer, Siemens Hearing Instruments, Inc.

William J. Lankenau, President and CEO of Siemens Hearing Instruments, took the reigns of the largest hearing aid manufacturer in April of 2002. He is charged with leading the company's sales, manufacturing, product development, customer relations and research and development in the United States.

Lankenau's 12-year career with Siemens Hearing began in 1990 as Vice President of Manufacturing, and has since held the positions of Vice President of Operations and most recently, Chief Operating Officer. During his tenure, Lankenau has achieved great success including leading Siemens Hearing Instruments to become the first hearing aid manufacturer to earn ISO 9001 registration in the United States as the company maintained comprehensive systems to support its commitment to continuous quality improvement. The certification covers the entire development, manufacturing, sales and service process for its hearing instruments and related products. In addition, he revamped the manufacturing process for Siemens Hearing by implementing state-of-the-art equipment and procedures, which increased productivity, turn-around-time, and manufacturing quality. This procedure was so successful it was instituted for Siemens Audiologische Technik GmbH worldwide. Under Lankenau's leadership, the Siemens Hearing Instruments United States headquarters in Piscataway, New Jersey has become the research and development custom hearing aid competency center for the world.

Most recently, as Chief Operating Officer, Lankenau led Siemens to introduce LasR™, a revolutionary new hearing aid shell manufacturing process, in 2001. LasR utilizes state-of-the-art software, combined with precision laser scanning, to increase accuracy when duplicating impressions of the ear.

Currently, Lankenau is addressing forthcoming changes to ensure full HIPAA compliance before all applicable federally mandated implementation dates. Working closely with many audiology dispensers and hospitals, Lankenau is committed to the effective implementation of HIPAA for appropriate privacy, security, and administrative simplification standards for the healthcare industry.

Prior to joining Siemens Hearing Instruments he was the Senior Director of Operations for Datascope, a medical electronics company located in Montvale, New Jersey where he worked for nearly ten years. Before that he was the Manager of Manufacturing Engineering for IT&T, a telecommunications company, where he worked from 1969 to 1981.

Lankenau holds a seat on the Hearing Industry Association (HIA) Board of Directors. He has a bachelor's of science degree in mechanical engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University. He resides in Denville, New Jersey with his wife and in his spare time he enjoys spending time with his four children and one grandchild, golfing and fishing.

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