Willie G. Davidson

William Godfrey "Willie G." Davidson (born 1933) is an American businessman and motorcycle designer, and the former senior vice president & chief styling officer of Harley-Davidson Motor Company. He was also the head of Harley-Davidson's Willie G. Davidson Product Development Center in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. While being generally responsible for approving Harley-Davidson motorcycle designs, he also personally designed several motorcycles for Harley-Davidson, including the Super Glide and the Low Rider, which pioneered the factory custom motorcycle and created an intermediate line of motorcycles between their large touring models and their smaller Sportsters.

Early life Willie G. Davidson is the son of former Harley-Davidson president William H. Davidson and the grandson of co-founder William A. Davidson.

At Harley-Davidson Willie G. Davidson's 1980 Harley-Davidson Custom Belt-Drive FXWG at the Harley-Davidson Museum

Davidson joined the design department of Harley-Davidson in 1963. In 1969 he was promoted to Vice President of Styling.

Willie was one of the Harley-Davidson executives who joined Vaughn Beals in buying Harley-Davidson from parent company American Machine and Foundry in 1981.

On March 16, 2012, it was announced that Willie G. would retire from Harley-Davidson on April 30, 2012. He is to remain involved as brand ambassador, and in Special Design Projects as Chief Styling Officer Emeritus.