To celebrate its 110th year in business,
Harley-Davidson is holding rallies across the world, but the piece de
resistance will take place in St Peter's Square in Rome on June 16 when
Pope Francis blesses 1400 Harleys, reports The Australian.Harley-Davidson's chief executive and president, Keith Wandell, doesn't know if the Argentine leader of the Catholic world is a closet biker, he just knows it took months of organisation after the Vatican offered the service.
Mr Wandell, previously president and chief operating officer of Johnson Controls, and once head of its automotive business, which supplied components to every car company in the world, was appointed to the top job at Harley in March 2009.
Back then North American car manufacturing companies were suffering up to a 40 per cent slump in sales thanks to the global financial crisis.
Harley was down about 10 per cent, but by the time Mr Wandell tucked his knees under the desk on April 6, it had fallen another 30 per cent.
"They tried to blame me. Employees said, 'This guy, he hasn't even started working yet and look what he's done'," Mr Wandell joked in a break from a pep talk with staff in Sydney. Though 2009 continued to erode, it began to gradually pick up -- but not back to the peak."