According to an article in the June issue of Motorcycle Consumer News former BMW NA VP, Pieter de Waal, has been named as Zero's newest board member. I think this is big news for Zero. In addition to managing BMW's U.S. motorcycle operation, Mr. de Waal has been the head of BMW motorcycle operations in South Africa, the UK and was the company's head of sales and marketing worldwide. He is quoted as saying: "I am excited to be part of Zero Motorcycles. I believe that electric vehicles will play an important role in our future and Zero has the resources, drive and pioneering spirit to help make that future an exciting reality."
These are my comments: While Mr. de Waal was running the U.S. BMW operation, he was well respected by the U.S. dealers, as well as the BMW Motorcycle Owners Association and its chartered clubs. He made the dealers very happy by understanding their problems and changed the requirement that dealers could only sell the BMW's and not any other brand. This made a huge difference in keeping dealers in business during hard times. BMW motorcycle owners liked him because he would visit club rallies and speak about the motorcycles, the company and its future plans, as well as respond to questions about its products. I can't ever recall a BMW employee that was so engaging to BMW motorcycle enthusiasts. Everyone that I ever spoke with seemed to think that Pieter de Waal was one of the smartest and nicest guys in the motorcycle industry and when you get both dealers and owners to say the same thing about a company "suit" I think that says a lot about any executive, especially one in the motorcycle industry.
I think Mr. de Waal is going to be a real asset to the Zero organization.
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Topic: Pieter de Waal joins Zero's Board of Directors (Read 767 times)