Harley-Davidson has had a rough year. Between lackluster sales, tariffs spiking all sorts of imported parts and materials, and the leaving of a controversial CEO, there's been no shortage of fires for the company's management to put out. But there was one incident that caused more hubbub than anything else, and that was its attempted boardroom coup by a former director.
The tiff between the directors and the company began with former CEO Jochen Zeitz's announced departure at the end of this year, and revolved around who could pick, as well as who to pick, for the Motor Company's next CEO. One director wanted that power, the rest declined to give him that power, and it resulted in a very public attempted coup to oust everyone.
In the end, a new CEO was picked, and two long-standing directors resigned, giving the aforementioned former director the outcome they desired, even though he, too, left the board. That new CEO, Artie Starr, comes from TopGolf and Pizza Hut, and there's been a lot of talk around whether he's the right choice to lead the iconic motorcycle brand, given he doesn't have experience in the motorcycling world, a chief concern with Zeitz's tenure, too.
