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Entrepreneur of the Year 1999

Erik Buell, America's premier designer of sport bikes, caught the entrepreneurial fever when he was a college student. He built and repaired motorcycles and designed his first custom race bike while studying engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. In the early 1970s Buell began motocross and road racing and soon was recognized as a top international professional racer. He has since combined his love of racing and innovative engineering talent into a successful business, Buell Motorcycle Company.

After graduating from college, Buell worked at Harley-Davidson as a junior test engineer. Later he would be promoted to senior project engineer. He was still designing bikes for his own races in his spare time --- he didn't feel comfortable racing on a model made by a Harley-Davidson competitor.

In 1984, Buell left Harley-Davidson to pursue his dream of making the "perfect" sport bike. After struggling for several years to establish his own motorcycle company, Buell realized that he needed a partner. Luckily he still had a good relationship with Harley-Davidson and was able to negotiate a partnership agreement that resulted in the formation of Buell Motorcycle Company. The company headquarters are located in East Troy, Wisconsin.

The first model that Buell introduced under the partnership with Harley-Davidson (S2 Thunderbolt) was named Rider magazine's Top Innovation that season. In 1997, more than 3,000 Buell motorcycles were sold. With each new impressive design, sales continued to grow bringing this year's sales well over 7,000.