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[Richard230]

It looks like Zero now has a full management team with the naming of Richard Walker as their CEO. The article by Ultimate Motorcycling doesn't say a thing about Mr. Walker being a motorcycle rider, though. He sounds like another general-purpose administrator to me.  I hope Zero has some motorcycle enthusiasts in their development department and that the "suits" know enough to let them develop the bikes without too much meddling.

Read about their management team here:  http://www.ultimatemotorcycling.com/2012/zero-motorcycles-names-walker-as-ceo

[craigq]

He was "Vice President and General Manager of the Consumer Desktop Business Division" at HP and "Executive Vice President of the Products Group at Control4. " 

[manlytom]

OK, hopefully not to many chiefs and no indians ...

PS: thats at least a saying overhere and considered politically correct enough.

translated:
to many VPs and hierarchies and not enough workers

[ColoPaul]

I have a buddy that has worked for HP for years... I asked him if he knew the guy, and this is what he replied:

Hi Paul,
Never heard of the guy.  But ex-HP management, if I owned the stock I would sell, sell, sell.
Chris

HP has been a slow-motion disaster for the last decade.  Plus anyone willing to tote around an 11-word title gets a strike in my book. 

This link takes you to a Control4 "about our management" page where there's a short bio on him (scroll down a bit).   It sounds very positive.  Maybe he's not too bad.
http://control4.com/about-us/management/

[trikester]

I recall reading that Indian Motorcycles didn't have a single engineer that rode motorcycles for a number of years leading up to their demise. H D always had engineers that rode, and still does.

If I owned a motorcycle design and manufacturing company I would want anybody who could influence design, marketing, or production, to be a frequent rider.

[Lipo423]

I must agree with all of you -especially Richard-
Being Zero owned by a private-equity company this is a "typical next step" ; after all, they want their return ASAP (usually, in average P.E. companies do to hold/own a company for more than 3-4 years)

In my previous job I had the opportunity to deal/meet with some of these individuals...and know the way they operate...hopefully I'm wrong in Zero's case...

[cirrus pete]

Folks are pretty quick to indict this guy based on very little or no information. One of the most difficult transitions any growing business needs to make is the transition from entrepreneurial ethos to more "mature" business. The failure to make that transition usually means the business will cease to exist. It is doubly difficult for a disruptive business like electric motorcycles where both the technology is so new and the ultimate market is uncertain. Layer onto that low global GDP growth and reduced disposable income among your target buyer and things get real interesting.  For all we know he loves to ride (or will learn to love to ride), but, ride or not, his job is to have the hand on the tiller to steer the business to right balance of growth and profitability.
I don't know this guy, but I do know that if we all collectively want zeros to continue to grow and be successful, we should hope that he can manage that change...

[Lipo423]

Quote:

"Richard joined Control4 from Hewlett-Packard, where he led the company's $6 billion consumer desktop business unit. During his tenure at Hewlett-Packard, Richard was responsible for a 15% growth, and he secured and maintained the company's worldwide leadership position in the desktop market for the last four years.
Prior to Hewlett-Packard, Richard was with Pumatech, now a part of Nokia, where he served as the vice president marketing and general manager online services and was responsible for establishing the company's online services business unit.
Richard holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in business from Sheffield & Hallam University in Sheffield, England"

No business-related experience, No technical education...I would not say this is very little information but I do agree that we need to hope he will do a good job, no question...

[dkw12002]

As long as they didn't hire him to shut down the company, I'll be happy. The news at Brammo is also good in that regard. They bought an old Walmart store according to their most recent press release and plan to hire 150 employees or so to build bikes presumably. It's not the same as getting the bikes out, but at least is sounds promising. Brammo should just call their Empulse a 2013 model at this point. I wonder what will be out first...the Empulse or the 2013 Zeros?

[trikester]

Crossing my fingers here and hoping for the best for ZERO's future.

I may be the most "loyal customer" ZERO has had yet. They held my $500 deposit for 105 weeks while I waited for my 2010 DS. Now I own a 2010 DS and a 2012 DS. To their credit they decided to "comp" me the low profile Corbin seat as reward for my 2 year+ patience. Much appreciated here 

Trikester

[Vertigo1]

I think Mr. Walker is a good fit for two big reasons:

1. Agility, due to the similarity in pace of change between computer technology and EV technology there should be no suprises for him.

2. Familiarity with sourcing (in or out) computer components in high volume.