It’s Tuesday, and in the world of electrics that means another Zero Motorcycles press release, and another weekly confirmation that Asphalt & Rubber is still on the Santa Cruz company’s “ultra double-secret probation” list of publications that no longer get media communiqués and press invites to its media events. That clearly hasn’t stopped us though, as today’s news release confirms what we already knew: Zero Motorcycles CEO Gene Banman has stepped down from his position in the company, although he will continue to serve on the company’s Board of Directors.
Gene Banman was employee #9 at Zero Motorcycles and quickly rose from being the company’s COO to the company’s CEO. Banman is also the person responsible for securing investment from the Invus Group, the wallet behind Zero, which recently just invested $17 million into the company (more on that later), not $26 million as Zero deceivingly announced, and all other publications lazily reiterated (it’s pointing out things like this “colorful version of the truth” that landed us in hot water with Zero in the first place by the way).
As we predicted, Zero’s current COO, Karl Wharton, will fill in as an interim-CEO. Zero doesn’t go on to mention if it will be looking for a permanent replacement or not, but our sources and common business practice suggest Wharton is filling Banman’s shoes permanently in this position (considering the timing of his hire too, which was several months ago, he was brought on-board specifically for this transition). Wharton has some sizable issues to contend with in his new role, it’ll be interesting to see how he and the team at Zero Motorcycles tackle them in the coming months.
Source: Zero Motorcycles
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