An organization representing more than 170
Harley-Davidson dealers across the United States is voicing its support of a leadership change within the Milwaukee-based motorcycle manufacturer.
The
National Powersports Dealers Association, Harley-Davidson Council, says it shares “many of the concerns” presented by New York-based
H Partners Management.
Last month, H Partners, which owns a 9.1% stake in Harley-Davidson,
launched a campaign that hopes to convince Harley-Davidson shareholders to withhold re-electing three members of the Harley-Davidson board: CEO
Jochen Zeitz, board member
Sara Levinson, and board member
Tom Linebarger. H Partners is also calling on the board to immediately remove Zeitz as CEO and install a senior leader to the position temporarily.
The campaign follows the resignation of
Jared Dourdeville, partner at H Partners, from Harley’s board of directors. In a letter, Dourdeville cited several concerns with the company’s leadership, strategies and “disappearing dealer profitability.”
"Despite the fact that dealers have invested significant time, talent and money in this company for 122 years, H-D’s current chairman, Jochen Zeitz, has dismissed dealers’ concerns by stating that our discontent is just noise by a small number of angry dealers seeking attention. This is simply not true,” said the H-D Council in a statement this released this week.
That letter noted that in addition to its 170 members, the H-D Council is joined by eight separate Harley-Davidson dealer associations representing 168 additional dealers.
"Mr. Zeitz has shown how far removed he is from his understanding of the backbone of the business and the hard-working and dedicated Harley-Davidson employees who partner with us in delivering world-class products to passionate and loyal riders," reads the letter. "The contribution of Harley-Davidson employees to the brand is critical to the success of the dealer network and we have the utmost respect for their partnership. While we cannot speak for employees, we note that the current widespread dealer discontent is aimed at board leadership, not those who live and breathe the brand’s mission for success every day."
Citing a lack of collaboration from Harley-Davidson’s current leadership team, the H-D Council says “dealers throughout the United States” are in support of removing Zeitz, Linebarger, and Levinson.
"H Partners had a representative in the Harley-Davidson boardroom for three years and had every opportunity to address issues that were important to them, yet they never did," said Linebarger in a previously released statement. "They could have taken steps to nominate competing director candidates and given shareholders an alternative they did not. They could have expressed their concerns about the directors they are now targeting – yet their representative on the board voted for these directors to stand for reelection. The launch of this misguided campaign is, in our view, an attempt to engineer an outcome in the CEO search process that they alone desire."
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