Harley-Davidson Confirms CEO Search as Jochen Zeitz Plans 2025 Retirement
Will a New CEO Reverse Harley’s Misfortunes?
Harley-Davidson is looking for a new CEO. The Milwaukee company’s board confirmed Tuesday that it hired an executive search firm in the fourth quarter of 2024, after CEO Jochen Zeitz said he wanted to retire this year.
Zeitz, the former Puma chief, took over in 2020. He will stay on until a successor is named.
The numbers
Whoever gets the job inherits a shrinking business. Harley’s fourth-quarter results, released in February, showed:
- Motorcycle revenue of $231 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, down 60% from $583 million a year earlier.
- Motorcycle revenue of $3.14 billion for the full year, down 17%.
- Global retail sales of new motorcycles down 15% in the quarter and 7% for the year.
- North American retail sales of 15,127 bikes in the quarter, down 13%, and 102,023 for the year, down 4%.
The company shipped 53% fewer motorcycles in the quarter, which it blamed on cutting dealer inventory and market conditions.
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The slide predates Zeitz. In 2019, under CEO Matt Levatich, Harley’s U.S. sales fell to 125,960 motorcycles, the fewest in at least 16 years.
LiveWire
The electric motorcycle spinoff, LiveWire, sold 374 bikes in the first three quarters of 2024. It cut its forecast for the year from 1,000 to 1,500 units to 600 to 1,000 and reduced its workforce about 30% from the start of the year.
Changes at Juneau Avenue
In 2024, Harley moved employees from its Wauwatosa product development center and LiveWire’s California lab into its Juneau Avenue headquarters to cut costs.
It also turned a four-acre employee parking lot there into Davidson Park, a $20 million public park designed by Heatherwick Studio. It opened in June 2024.
In August 2024, after pressure from conservative activist Robby Starbuck, Harley dropped its diversity initiatives, including supplier diversity goals.
Harley has been in Milwaukee since 1903. Its next CEO will take over a company whose motorcycle revenue fell 17% last year.
Brian Fraley is the publisher of Dairyland Sentinel, which he founded in 2023. A native of Milwaukee, he grew up in Wauwatosa. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and has been involved in Wisconsin public policy, politics and journalism since 1985. He currently lives in Waukesha County with his wife and two daughters.
Dairyland Sentinel follows a published Editorial Policy, Ethics Statement and Corrections Policy.
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