Richard Teerlink 1939-2025
A pivotal figure in Harley-Davidson's survival in the 1980s, after its emergence from under the ownership of AMF, the passing for former Harley CFO and CEO Richard Teerlink sees the V-twin industry mourning a man who played a major role in securing and shaping a future for 'The Motor Company'.
In fact, the lending deals that Teerlink finally secured on December 23rd, 1985, came only days before Harley was slated to file for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy on January 1st, 1986 - the paperwork was done and ready, that's how close it came.
In the short term, the specific crisis that triggered the emergency was the decision taken by Citicorp to secure its interests from the risk of further losses by calling in its note. Citicorp had been the lead financier when the investor group of executives bought Harley out from AMF ownership in 1981.
In the end, despite multiple failed attempts to raise fresh money, and with the help of Steve Deli from Dean Witter Reynold's office in Chicago (DWR had been asked to prepare the bankruptcy filing paperwork) Teerlink as CFO and Vaughn Beals as the CEO at that stage managed to secure a deal with an initially reluctant Heller Financial Corporation in Chicago. Citicorp had to accept a financial 'haircut' but got $49m out of the deal that Teerlink had created.
By way of a stunning 'sidebar factoid' - that is the same Steve Deli who went on to establish Harley-Davidson Financial Services (HDFS); and who, later, with his wife and former Harley Marketing VP Ann Deli, established and still own and operate the American Road Group which owns and operates some 20 Harley-Davidson dealerships and retail merchandise stores - mostly in New England and Florida.
The three secondary banks that had originally financed the AMF buy-out with Citicorp also went along with Teerlink's plan - First Wisconsin National Bank in Milwaukee, Mellon Bank East in Philadelphia and Bank of New England in Boston.
In his memoir 'Ride Free', Willie G. Davidson (one of 'The 13') describes how Teerlink got a call from someone at Heller on New Year's Eve saying that they couldn't possibly get all the required signatures and transfer the money in time to close the deal.
"To this day I don't know how Rich did it, but he persuaded the lender to stay open late. Many of our executives were sitting in a bank in downtown Milwaukee, pacing the floor and praying that the deal would get done.
"There were two big stacks of papers on a desk: one for refinancing and another for bankruptcy. We would be signing one of them at the end of the night. Finally, at around 11 p.m., all of the required refinancing documents were signed, money was transferred to Citicorp, and Harley-Davidson survived with only an hour to spare."
The rest as they say is history, and it was certainly historic. Although, as Willie G. says, that wasn't the end of Harley's travails, and there were many tough decisions still ahead, not least a loss of some 40 percent of the headcount, it did at least give the company a foundation on which to move forward.
Having initially joined Harley in 1981, Teerlink went on to head Harley as CEO until the late 1990s. Having met the short-term challenges head on, in the long run it is his leadership style, a cooperative and inclusive rather than 'command and control' style that is widely credited with re-inventing a post AMF era Harley culture that allowed the team he built and motivated to re-build Harley anew.
A culture that from Juneau Avenue right through to the Capitol Drive and York, PA. shop floors, from the unions to the dealers, brought everyone along with his vision of a team mission in which everyone could be a winner.
Following the 1986 IPO, that management style saw Harley prosper and become a stock market darling and dominant global heavyweight motorcycle manufacturer of the 1990s and the 2000s.
Thankyou Mr Teerlink.
