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A major Harley-Davidson shareholder is fighting to shake up the motorcycle maker’s board and quickly replace its chief executive in the face of deteriorating sales.
In an open letter Wednesday, investment firm H Partners urged shareholders to remove three longstanding directors from Harley’s eight-member board at a coming annual meeting in mid-May.
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H Partners, which has a roughly 9% stake in Harley, said the company failed nearly every objective in its strategic plan and that “it has become clear to us that meaningful change is necessary at both the Board and CEO levels.”
The Wall Street Journal reported on the investment firm’s plans Tuesday.
H Partners is calling for Jochen Zeitz to immediately step down as Harley’s chief executive and not stand in the way of the company recruiting an external replacement. Zeitz also serves as chairman.
Harley said last week that it was seeking a new CEO as Zeitz plans to retire after five years on the job. Harley said it retained an executive search firm in late 2024 after Zeitz expressed interest in retiring. Zeitz is expected to remain in his position until a successor is chosen.
H Partners’s Jared Dourdeville abruptly resigned from Harley’s board earlier this month, arguing in a now-public letter that the motorcycle maker had suffered “cultural depletion” because of an extensive, white-collar work-from-home policy and the departure of several senior leaders, among other concerns.
“By airing the board’s confidential search and publicly campaigning against the company, the board believes Mr. Dourdeville is also adversely impacting the CEO search process,” the company said in a statement, adding the campaign would impede execution of its strategy and put shareholders’ interests at risk.
Dourdeville, a partner at the firm, joined Harley’s board in 2022 as H Partners became what is now Harley’s second-biggest shareholder.
Dourdeville said he had been privately calling for the immediate resignation of Zeitz. Harley said that its directors had interviewed three potential CEOs but declined to offer any the role.
Zeitz helped boost Harley’s profit during his tenure, but sales of the company’s bikes have continued to decline as the brand struggles to resonate with a younger generation of riders.