publicly traded aktieselskab traded as nasdaq copenhagen wdh industry health care founded 1904 headquarters sm rum denmark key people lars n rby johansen chairman niels jacobsen president and ceo products hearing aids audiometric equipment revenue dkk 10.665 billion 2015 operating income dkk 1.878 billion 2015 profit dkk 1.439 billion 2015 total assets dkk 14.930 billion end 2015 total equity dkk 6.5 billion end 2015 number of employees 10 803 average 2015 subsidiaries oticon website www.demant.com the william demant holding group is a leading international hearing health care company within hearing aids audiometric equipment and personal communication . contents 1 beginning 2 international expansion 3 references 4 external links beginning edit the william demant holding group was founded in 1904 by hans demant under the name oticon . after his death in 1910 his son william demant took over . already before world war i oticon increased its sales volume to cover scandinavia and saint petersburg . in the twenties and thirties a network of agents was established in europe . during world war ii oticon started its own production due to the scarcity of goods from other countries . in 1957 william and his wife ida emilie donated the demant family s shares in the company to the oticon foundation . the oticon foundation s general aim is charity with particular emphasis on helping people with a hearing impairment and today the oticon foundation is the main shareholder in william demant holding a s with a holding of app . 61 % . international expansion edit during the 1990s the company expanded further buying the swiss hearing aid manufacturer bernafon phonic ear the headset manufacturer danacom and interacoustics . in 1995 the company was listed at the copenhagen stock exchange . in 1997 it was decided to change the name of the parent company from oticon holding a s to william demant holding a s because it was considered disadvantageous to use the same name both for the group and for one of its businesses . today the company is led by president & ceo niels jacobsen and board chairman lars n rby johansen . the company has now shaped into a for profit company taking its company from people first to money first . today the company focuses on three separate business units hearing aids oticon bernafon sonic innovations neurelec cochlear implants and oticon medical bone anchored hearing aids diagnostic instruments maico diagnostics interacoustics amplivox and grason stadler personal communication phonic ear sennheiser communications instrument dealers gordon stowe & associates inc. northeastern technologies group inc. midlantic technologies group inc. references edit external links edit official website v t e omx copenhagen 20 companies of denmark march 2016 a.p. m ller m rsk carlsberg chr . hansen coloplast danske bank dsv flsmidth & co. genmab gn store nord iss jyske bank nordea novo nordisk novozymes pandora tdc tryg vestas wind systems william demant this danish corporation or company article is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title william demant & oldid 741587381 categories health care companies of denmarkelectronics companies of denmarkotologycompanies based in egedal municipalitydanish company stubshidden categories all stub articles navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages danskdeutsch fran aissuomi edit links this page was last modified on 28 september 2016 at 12 44 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view