Another dealer association backs campaign to oust Harley leadership ahead of shareholder vote
Just ahead of Harley-Davidson’s annual shareholder meeting, a second motorcycle dealer association has come out in support of a campaign led by investment firm H Partners Management to shake up the company’s senior leadership, according to Milwaukee’s BizTimes.com.
On Monday, the Florida Harley-Davidson Dealers Association announced it would join the National Powersports Dealer Association in calling for the immediate removal of CEO Jochen Zeitz. The move adds momentum to H Partners’ push to overhaul the company’s executive team and board.
H Partners, a 9.1% stakeholder in Harley-Davidson, launched its campaign last month with a proposal for shareholders to vote against the reelection of three directors — Jochen Zeitz, Sara Levinson, and Tom Linebarger — at the May 14 meeting. The firm also demands that Zeitz be removed as CEO and replaced with an interim senior leader.
“Dealer profitability has collapsed,” the Florida dealers association stated in a letter. “Transaction volume is down, obsolescent inventory has surged, and absorption has hit an all-time low. Florida dealers…are being buried under aging inventory, declining foot traffic, and top-down mandates that ignore the on-the-ground realities. This isn’t just a poor performance. It’s a failure of leadership.”
Last week, the National Powersports Dealer Association, which represents more than 170 Harley dealers nationwide, also endorsed H Partners’ campaign.
The mounting pressure follows the recent resignation of Jared Dourdeville, H Partners’ representative on Harley’s board. In his resignation letter, Dourdeville cited deep concerns over Harley’s leadership, strategy, and “disappearing dealer profitability.”
In response, Linebarger defended the board’s handling of the situation. “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,” he said in a previously released statement. “This misguided campaign is, in our view, an attempt to engineer an outcome in the CEO search process that they alone desire.”
Harley-Davidson has firmly opposed H Partners’ efforts. In a letter to shareholders issued May 12, the company urged investors to vote “FOR ALL” of its director nominees using the WHITE proxy card, characterizing H Partners’ campaign as “misguided and self-interested.”
“Harley-Davidson is at a critical juncture in its 120+ year history,” the company wrote, emphasizing that its board is in the midst of a “rigorous” CEO search. The company also stated it is executing a successful strategy that has improved its performance relative to industry peers.
Supporting Harley’s position is Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS), a leading independent proxy advisory firm, which has recommended that shareholders vote for all of the company’s board nominees. In its May 5 report, ISS stated that H Partners “has not presented a compelling case for change” and warned that the campaign may be setting back the CEO search.
ISS noted that Zeitz’s leadership has had a “positive impact” on the company’s trajectory and that Harley-Davidson has kept pace with peers under his tenure—a contrast to prior years of underperformance. The firm concluded that H Partners’ campaign appeared to be a reaction to not getting its preferred CEO candidate rather than a “measured response.”
The showdown will come to a head at Harley-Davidson’s shareholder meeting on May 14 (today!). With competing visions for the company’s future on the line, shareholders are being urged to cast their votes as Harley-Davidson navigates what may be its most contentious leadership battle in years.
