William G. Davidson, usually referred to as "Willie G.", is the senior vice president & chief styling officer of Harley-Davidson Motor Company

Harley-Davidson

Harley-Davidson , often abbreviated H-D or Harley, is an American motorcycle manufacturer. Founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the first decade of the 20th century, it was one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression...

. He is 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 has also personally designed several motorcycles for Harley-Davidson, including the Super Glide

Harley-Davidson Super Glide

The Harley-Davidson Super Glide is a motorcycle model made by the Harley-Davidson Motor Company. Reputed to be the first factory custom motorcycle, it originated Harley's FX series of motorcycles by mating Sportster components, most notably the front end, with the chassis of their larger big twin...

 and the Low Rider, which pioneered the factory custom motorcycle and created an intermediate line of motorcycles between their large touring models

Harley-Davidson FL

FL is a model designation used on motorcycles manufactured by Harley-Davidson from 1941 to present. Mostly applied to Harley's large-framed bikes, including the current Touring series, the FL designation is also used with their Softail series, especially on Softails with traditional styling,...

 and their smaller Sportsters.

Early life

Willie G. Davidson is the son of former Harley-Davidson president William H. Davidson and the grandson of Harley-Davidson co-founder William A. Davidson. Consequently, he grew up around Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Davidson graduated from the University of Wisconsin and went on to study at the Art Center College of Design

Art Center College of Design

Art Center College of Design is a private college located in Pasadena, California, and was cited by BusinessWeek as one of the 60 best design schools in the world. The college’s industrial design program is consistently ranked number one by both DesignIntelligence and U.S...

 in Pasadena, California. While in California, he became aware of bike customization.

Before working for Harley-Davidson, Davidson worked for the design department of Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...

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At Harley-Davidson

Davidson joined the design department of Harley-Davidson in 1963. In 1969 he was promoted to Vice President of Styling. His designs during the 1970s included the 1971 FX Super Glide, the 1977 FXS Low Rider, and the 1977 XLCR Sportster-based cafe racer

Café racer

A café racer is a type of motorcycle as well as a type of motorcyclist. Both meanings have their roots in the 1960s British counterculture group the Rockers, or the Ton-up boys, although they were also common in Italy, Germany, and other European countries...

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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.