Keith Wandell, who will retire as president and chief executive officer of Harley-Davidson Inc., plans to return to the battery business by accepting the appointment of chairman of the board of Exide Technologies.
Before taking the helm of Harley, Wandell was president and chief operating officer of Glendale-based Johnson Controls Inc., a competitor of Exide.
Exide, which is based in the Atlanta suburb of Milton, Ga., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2011 after losing a bid for an exclusive contract to provide transportation batteries for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to rival Johnson Controls.
Wandell will retire from Harley on May 1.
John Olin, senior vice president and chief financial officer of Harley, also plans to join the Exide board.
The appointments of Wandell and Olin to the Exide board were proposed in the company’s reorganization filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.
