Jochen Zeitz

Jochen Zeitz (born 1963 in Mannheim, Germany) is a German former executive who chaired and ran Puma for 18 years and later served as chairman, president and chief executive of Harley-Davidson. After studying international marketing and finance at the European Business School and starting at Colgate-Palmolive in New York and Hamburg, he joined Puma in 1990 and became its chairman and chief executive in 1993 at the age of 30, reportedly the youngest head of a German public company. He led a worldwide restructuring of the then struggling sportswear firm, and its share price rose from about 8.6 euros to a high of 350 euros by 2007, when Kering acquired a majority stake. At Puma he introduced the PUMAVision ethical framework and the Environmental Profit and Loss Account, which put a monetary value on the company's use of ecosystem services. He joined the Harley-Davidson board in 2007, became interim chief executive in February 2020 and permanent chief executive in May 2020, and he co-founded The B Team with Richard Branson.