Claus Nielsen

I am a Research Operations Manager and Senior Research Audiologist. The primary aspect of my work lies within operations. That means I am responsible for facility management and financial supervision to assist our Senior Director.

I applied more than 35 years ago. I applied because I wanted to work with people with hearing impairment in a clinical environment. At the time I was working in the public hearing system, but gradually became fed up with the limited amount of time we had to work with the people who came into our clinic. I wanted to work in a place where I had the time to talk to people and understand their predicament; at the time, that place was Eriksholm Research Centre.

I have been involved in many, many research projects, covering everything from acoustic transfer functions of in-the-ear instruments to behavioral science projects such as client-journey projects, when people realize their hearing impairment, and we work with them to map their journey to living well with their hearing loss. I have also initiated a number of projects and ideas, for example what we today know as occlusion problems. Occlusion problems describe how people perceive the sound of their own voice when they are wearing hearing aids. That was something that Eriksholm and Oticon later reaped a lot of praise for; we understood occlusion problems and made a great effort to tackle them. On top of all of that, I think it is fair to say you can refer to me as the company expert on hearing aid history, and the history of both the company and the Demant family. I run the Eriksholm Collection, our in-house museum, and can probably catalogue the past 100 years of hearing aids more or less by heart.

I would say what I like the most about working here is the freedom to operate that I am afforded. I am not a big fan of micro-management, and so I think it is really nice that I get to own my work and do it in a way that I feel is an effective use of my time and resources.

Trust – This comes back to me having the freedom to operate within my job. That freedom is the result of mutual trust between yourself and your manager, and it is something I value very much. For the same reason I aim at offering my employees the trust and independence they need to do their jobs comfortably.

Respect – My definition of respect in this case may differ a little from others’ definition of it. What I mean is I respect others by virtue of who they are. I do not judge people based on their religion, not their title, not where they are from, or what they like. In my eyes, the best thing we can do, is respect everyone equally.

Friendship – Throughout the past three or four years I have learned how important it is to have good friends you can trust. Friends you can be together with without having to say much, friends who know you well enough to ask “what is wrong?

I hope the house is vibrant and that we have many ongoing projects that can make a difference for people with hearing loss. I also hope we grow our sphere of influence within audiology. I will again take part in a research project where we hope to learn much more about the users and how they use our products.

Spending time with my family, especially my grandchildren, gives me joy. “I also enjoy, for one, geocaching, otherwise referred to as “GPS treasure hunting”. I have practiced geocaching for the past twelve years both in Denmark and around the world. On occasion, I have had the opportunity to travel just for geocaching, which is always an amazing experience, and I get to meet a lot of crazy people like myself, who enjoy this global treasure hunt. I also like to ride my old vintage motorcycle whenever the schedule and weather permits. I also love cooking; originally, I actually wanted to work as a chef, but – fortunately for me, as I love my job now – I did not pursue that dream.