Harley-Davidson announced its preferred candidate to fill Jared Dourdeville’s seat on the company’s board of directors.
Dourdeville, a partner at New York-based investment firm H Partners Management, stepped down from Harley-Davidson’s board at the beginning of the month, citing several concerns with the company’s strategy and leadership.
H Partners has since launched a campaign aimed at getting Harley shareholders to withhold re-electing three members to the board on May 14: CEO Jochen Zeitz, board member Sara Levinson and board member Tom Linebarger. H Partners, which owns a 9.1% stake in Harley, is also calling on the board to immediately remove Zeitz as CEO and install a senior leader to the position temporarily. Zeitz plans to retire by the end of the year.
Lori Flees, the current president and CEO of Lexington, Kentucky-based Valvoline Inc., has been selected as the candidate who could fill Dourdeville’s seat. To take a seat on the board she will need to be elected at the company’s annual meeting.
Flees also spent more than eight years working at Walmart in various corporate roles, most recently serving as senior vice president and chief operating officer of Walmart Health & Wellness.
“The board nominated Ms. Lori Flees, who has not previously served on the board, for election as a director as part of the board’s commitment to refreshment that ensures a balance between leveraging institutional knowledge and bringing fresh perspectives to board discussions,” according to a Monday SEC filing from the company. “Ms. Flees was recommended by a third-party executive search, corporate culture, and leadership consultant retained by the board’s Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee to identify new director candidates.”
Harley urged shareholders to use their white proxy cards to vote for all the company’s director nominees, rather than using a blue proxy card being sent by H Partners.
“We believe our director nominees’ collective backgrounds and skillsets provide the appropriate expertise to oversee the completion of the final stage of our Hardwire strategic plan and to continue the ongoing search process for a new chief executive officer of the company,” Monday’s filing by the company says.
More articles about Harley-Davidson:
- Investment firm launches activist campaign against Harley-Davidson leadership
- Split vote on CEO candidate played role in Harley-Davidson board member’s resignation
- Harley-Davidson board member resigns citing ‘severe underperformance’ and ‘cultural depletion’ of brand
- Harley-Davidson searching for its next CEO with Jochen Zeitz planning to retire
- $365 million drop in Q4 leaves Harley sales down 11% for the year
- Harley revises some policies following DEI backlash on social media
- Harley-Davidson responds to online criticism of company’s policies and trainings
- Harley sees ‘customers sitting on the sidelines’ amid higher interest rates, uncertainty
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