[AMCN] Harley Wins Boardroom Brawl

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Knockout blow to coup leader but succession concession agreed to

A coup that threatened to upend Harley-Davidson’s management has been snuffed out with shareholders narrowly voting to retain all board members, including the retiring CEO and Chair Jochen Zeitz.

However, H-D’s second-largest largest shareholder, H Partners, which initiated the coup attempt, has won one major concession. Zeitz’s successor will come from outside the company, rather than being one of the internal candidates the board was considering.

In a statement later, H Partners said: “We are encouraged that this campaign compelled Harley’s board to commit that Mr Zeitz, Mr Linebarger and Ms Levinson will resign from the board before the 2026 annual meeting, that it will appoint a new, external CEO, and that it will eliminate any consideration of Mr Zeitz remaining on in an Executive Chair role. We call on the board to follow through on these promises.”

Linebarger, H-D’s Presiding Director, said: “We appreciate the valuable perspectives and feedback our shareholders have provided, and we look forward to continuing to engage going forward.”

The meeting had been expected to be a fiery encounter between the factions but it lasted barely 20 minutes. Exact details of the vote count were not revealed but insiders have told US financial journalists it was “knife-edge” close.

H Partners ran a very public campaign against the retention of Zeitz, Linebarger and Levinson. It claimed their plans to retire made them dead wood as the troubled company faces huge challenges in a declining sales market.

It also alleged that over the 17 years the trio had “overlapped” on Harley’s board, they had “overseen the destruction of more than $6 billion in equity value and have consistently put their own self-interests ahead of those of shareholders”.

H-D responded by calling out H Partners as “an opportunistic hedge fund” running a “misleading campaign”.

Zeitz was considered a potential saviour when appointed CEO in 2020. A board member since 2007, he had gained fame in the 1990s by turning sports brand Puma around with a long-term strategy that increased its share value by an incredible 4000 per cent.

His five-year plan for H-D was much less spectacular but seemed to be working by 2023. Then sales began declining after the Covid pandemic ended and tempers became frayed around the Harley dealer network. Last year a group of long-term customers and dealers openly campaigned against Zeitz, citing his Diversity Equity Inclusion strategy as an example of how he was destroying the famous company’s core values.

After the board crisis resolution, Harley shares closed at $US24.92, down 0.3 per cent.

These are confronting times for America’s largest motorcycle manufacturer. Its share value has dropped 31 per cent over the past year to $US3 billion.

In the first quarter of 2025, H-D’s global motorcycle sales slumped 21 percent compared to the same period in 2024. It was down 24 per cent in its home market and 28 per cent lower in the Asia-Pacific.

It blames the decline on a “volatile macroeconomic environment” and “consumer uncertainly”.

An indication of how big H-D is can be seen in these figures: A net income of $US133m in the first quarter (down 43 per cent) with the impact of the Trump tariffs described as “minimal” at $US9m but expected to hit hard going forward.

One failed bet on the future is the LiveWire spin-off brand, with H-D admitting it’s sold just 33 in the first quarter while sinking $US20m into the operation over that period.

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