'America Reports' panelists Taylor Riggs and Jackie DeAngelis discuss the controversy surrounding the iconic motorcycle company and the importance of political neutrality in businesses. Harley-Davidson ’s CEO Jochen Zeitz was Germany’s fresh-faced corporate wunderkind when he took over Puma in the 1990s. Lately, he's faced questions and concern from bikers and woke-exhausted consumers in the United States.
Zeitz is seen as a proponent of far-left ideology who, some critics say, has tarnished the legendary all-American Harley-Davidson brand since taking it over in 2020. HARLEY-DAVIDSON BOARD OF DIRECTORS SILENT ON FUTURE, FATE OF ‘WOKE’ CEO AND CHAIRMAN "They lost their human touch. That’s the best way to put it," longtime Harley-Davidson biker "Horseshoe" Johnny Hennings told Fox News Digital at the end of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota last week.
"Harley was like a brotherhood ...
Now it’s just a ghost." Jochen Zeitz, then chief executive officer of Puma AG, is shown speaking at the International Herald Tribune's Techno Luxury conference in Berlin, Germany, on Nov. 17, 2009.
He took over at Harley-Davidson in 2020. (Michele Tantussi/Bloomberg via Getty Images) But Zeitz's supporters see it another way. They say claims of Harley's demise are vastly overstated by aging riders.
The Milwaukee-based motorcycle maker reported $5.4 billion in revenue in 2019, part of a decade-long downward trend. Revenue climbed to $5.
8 billion last year, the third straigh.