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  Ronald E. West

email: reimburse@cochlear.org




RONALD E. WEST


President and CEO, Cochlear Corporation


On September 10, 2000, Indiana University fired head basketball coach Bobby Knight for a pattern of physical and verbal abuse against its employees and students.

Ironically, Ronald E. West, President and CEO of Cochlear Corporation, is renowned for engaging in very similar boorish conduct throughout his tenure. These include numerous incidents with his own staff, including efforts to bully cochlear implant associations and competitors, as well as Federal investigators, and even Medicare carriers.

In the most recent of several lawsuits filed against Mr. West in 1998, a female sales representative brought forth documentation that she was verbally berated and publicly belittled by Mr. West for protesting that Cochlear Corporation marketing practices for the Nucleus 24 Channel cochlear implant violated regulations by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Mr. West promptly issued a financial settlement to this employee.

This incident echoes a familar pattern of threats and retaliation against employees who question the legality of company practices. Most serious of these began on January 8, 1996, when Mr. West is documented to have waved his fist at a Cochlear employee and threatened to permanently blacklist the employee from the industry. Mr. West's outburst was witnessed by two Cochlear Vice Presidents, one of whom immediately left his office and submitted her resignation in protest.

On or about June 25, 1996, Mr. West received via certified mail a police report containing a voice mail message in which Maria Perretta, a Cochlear sales representative, was shown to have threatened to physically harm the employee Mr. West abused in January 1996. Mr. West is documented under oath to not only have refused to do anything to prevent this or subsequent threats, but clearly had encouraged it.

A third-party was placed on a list to be compelled to testify against the offending employee, and shortly thereafter committed suicide in January 1998 (according to State of Colorado records). Mr. West refuses to answer any questions or provide any information on this person's suicide.

In January 1997, Mr. West bullied CONTACT, a publication of the Cochlear Implant Club International(CICI) into refusing publication of any article or advertisement by Otologic Reimbursement Management (ORM), a rival billing and consulting service. A principal partner in ORM was the same employee Mr. West threatened with physical harm. Through a series of e-mail from Cochlear's CompuServe account, Cochlear urged that CICI's editors comply or risk loss of financial support by Cochlear.

In January 1998, Ron West threatened to publicly slander the same employee if he did not cease participation on an Internet forum of cochlear implant users. Mr. West protested ORM's advisement to cochlear implant users that sales of service contracts to Medicare beneficiaries violated Federal law. When his extortionate threat was rebuffed by ORM, Mr. West issued a post claiming no person ever informed him such sales were illegal--a statement shown to be knowingly false by the doucments posted under "Fraud and Abuse" section of this website entitled "Service Contracts."

Ron West subsequently retaliated against a Cochlear Vice President who testified on behalf of this same employee, acknowledging false accusations against that employee by Mr. West. Not long after his testimony, a series of fabricated allegations of criminal misconduct were brought against this individual in order to force his resignation.

Ron West continues his boorish and belligerent conduct to this day. It is clear his conduct will not cease until the Board of Directors for Cochlear Corporation have the fortitude to face up to such a bully figure in the same manner as the Indiana University Board of Trustees.

No matter how serious a disagreement, physical contacts or threats thereof can never be tolerated in any circumstance. Cochlear Corporation makes a terrific product which brings near miraculous benefits to thousands of hearing impaired persons worldwide. It is a true tragedy that this is diminished by the boorishness of a single volatile individual.

NOTE: Mr. West resigned from Cochlear Corporation in the first half of 2001.