Harley Davidson India has been up for a management change for a while now, and it’s finally happened with Peter MacKenzie being named Managing Director of Harley Davidson India, effective immediately. MacKenzie takes on this role in addition to his existing position as Managing director for Greater China. As of now, MacKenzie will continue to be based out of Shanghai, China but will travel to India interjectionally to oversee management. Day-to-day operations will be overseen by Harley India’s Country Manager, Manish Agarwal. Who will remain the backbone of Harleys India operations? As part of the new role, MacKenzie will oversee Harley Davidson’s India leadership team responsible for in-country sales, dealer network and management, marketing, service and operations activities to expand Harley’s presence in the sub-continent. MacKenzie’s employment with Harley started in 2010 bringing with him 25 years of business development experience from across the automotive experience. “India is a strategic market for us in line with our company strategy to build the next generation of Harley-Davidson riders globally. I am confident that MacKenzie will provide strong leadership to the team to grow the reach and impact of our brand, as we expand our dealership network in the country to support our business and give loyal and new customers greater access to our brand,” said Marc McAllister, vice president and managing director, International Markets.
As the Indian luxury cruising segment grows, Harley India will be looking to accelerate their growth and make further inroads into the country’s development. With the new MD at the helm, we could see Harley making more aggressive overtures in the country. Although one has to speculate whether managing two of the largest markets in the world is really humanly possible and that too remotely.
