The Executive Team

Stephen Julius, Chairman of the Board

Stephen: What Indian needs is to be treated right ...  its past needs to be respected, its future recognized. Our goal is to build high-quality, beautifully designed motorcycles that fulfills the promise of the brand.

Stephen holds a bachelor's and master's degree in Classics from Magdalen College at Oxford University. He also has a Master of Business Administration from Harvard University's Graduate School of Business. Chairman Stephen marches to a somewhat unique entrepreneurial drumbeat. One dedicated to removing revered industrial icons from the endangered-species list and restoring them to glory and profitability. 

Today, six years after acquiring bankrupt Chris-Craft Industries -- like Indian, a company with a century-long tradition of producing mechanically advanced, beautifully crafted cruisers -- and rebuilding it into one of the world's leading powerboat companies,  Julius is totally committed to Indian's long-term success.

"Restarting businesses is always hard work, but immensely satisfying," he says. "For me, this is a ten- , fifteen- , twenty-year project. Brands such as Indian were not created overnight and they can't be re-created overnight. Testimony to the power of the brand, and to the greatness of the founders who established it, is that after 50 years of being dormant the brand name is still a household word among motorcycle riders."

"The only way we will establish credibility is by designing and making high-quality motorcycles backed by a caring dealer network. The tracks we leave will be no more and no less than the quality of what we build. "

Steve Heese, President

Steve: Our goal is take the 20th Century legend that is Indian and reanimate it as a dynamic, profitable enterprise respected as much for its business stability as its motorcycles.

After six years as President of Chris-Craft,  working with Stephen Julius to restore that prestigious American brand to the ranks of the world's most elite recreational powerboat builders, Steve Heese is uniquely qualified to refine and apply the new Indian business model. 

With a bachelor's degree in accounting from Tulane University and a master's degree in business administration from Harvard University's Graduate School of Business, Heese has both the education and experience necessary to perform the sophisticated number crunching required by startup and turnaround companies.

"We're going the make Indian the de facto standard in premium cruiser motorcycles and extreme customer satisfaction service," he says. "And we're going to do it at enough of a profit to ensure that the company will remain alive and well for a long, long time. Maybe even another hundred years."





Chris Bernauer, General Manager

Chris: “We have an outstanding team of industry veterans throughout the company.  We will build our motorcycles with a craftsmen mentality with an engrained passion to build high quality motorcycles.  Our number one priority is to create a beautiful motorcycle with a high level of quality which will become the benchmark for the motorcycle industry.”

An eleven-year veteran of Harley-Davidson at such high-echelon posts as Powertrain Development Engineer and Sportster Platform Director, Chris, who's been riding since he was ten and wishes he'd started younger, has a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin Madison and an MBA from the Kellogg School of management at Northwestern University

Nick Glaja, Vice President of Engineering

Nick: Everything we build, now and in the future, is going to fully deserve to carry the Indian brand and be based on a sound engineering foundation. My number one priority is to provide just that.

Nick comes to Indian from Harley-Davidson, where he was the Principle Engineer of Powertrain Technology, and from Victory Motorcycle, where he served as Powertrain Group Manager. Calling his involvement in Indian's rebirth the "most exciting and challenging opportunity" of his 27-year career, Nick supervises the engineers and technicians, all of them riders, in the Product Development Team, tasked with designing, testing, and acquiring components for the new Chief. 

Gary Busch, Director of Dealer Development

Gary: Our dealers will be passionate, well-capitalized partners who are totally committed to America's first motorcycle brand and bringing its legend back to the Interstates and two-lanes.

A long-time motorcycle enthusiast and automotive/motorcycle industry executive with 30 years experience in sales and franchising, Busch remarked at the groundbreaking to Indian’s first new dealership now being built in North Carolina that, “this new Indian dealership will serve as the model for all future dealerships to come.  We have already identified a number of candidates in the top 50 metro markets that we are working with to become new Indian Retailers.  It is amazing how many people have such a great passion for this brand and literally want to devote their lives to seeing Indian live again.  What an exciting time for this legendary brand as it comes to life.
 
Everyone of our new dealerships will deliver an exclusive Indian Experience, staffed with Indian-centric sales people and Indian factory-certified mechanics. This is the right way to build a dealer network and that's the way we're going to do it."