Man Who Saved Harley Buys Store # 9
Eyeing retirement , Jim and Linda Schlier have sold their Tannersville , Pennsylvania based Pocono Mountain H-D store to Steve and Anne Deli ' s American Road Group ( ARG ) - marking their ninth full-service Harley dealership acquisition . Steve Deli is the man who is often credited with keeping Harley-Davidson in business in 1985 . As Managing Director of Chicago based American stock brokerage and securities firm Dean Witter Reynolds , Deli was approached by then Harley CFO Richard Teerlink to help refinance the company . In doing that , he suggested that the best idea for Harley at that time was to take the company public . It was initially considered an unlikely solution by Teerlink and then CEO Vaughn Beals , given the precarious position in which the Motor Company found itself at the time , but in 1986 that is exactly what happened , with Steve Deli leading the IPO - and the rest , as they say , is history . Anne Deli herself has a place " in the annals " at Harley . In the early 20th century , her family had lived " down the street " from the Davidsons and , growing up in Milwaukee , her next door neighbor had been the founder ' s son William J . Harley . After a hugely successful career in the advertising industry on Madison Avenue , New York , Anne became Harley ' s first female VP as head of Marketing and Licensing . Steve Deli went on to create the business unit that became HDFS . Steve and Anne eventually found themselves in the dealership game and created their American Road Group in 2000 . ARG stores include their first acquisitions , Orlando H-D , Laconia H-D at Meredith , NH ( home of the longest running motorcycle rally - Laconia Motorcycle Week ) and Wildcat H-D at London , KY .
The company additionally owns merchandise stores at Walt Disney World , Key West , and elsewhere .