Siegel Leaves Verity Records for Dale Earnhardt Enterprises

Reported today by Sheilah Belle & The Belle Report:

New York, NY — In one of the biggest moves ever made by any Gospel Music Executive, Max Siegel leaving Verity Records has got to be one of the biggest!

The announcement came on Friday, when Max Siegel, President of Zomba Gospel and Senior Vice President of the Zomba Label Group informed his staff, and some of the label roster members like Kirk Franklin, Fred Hammond, John P. Kee and others that he would be leaving the company and heading to Charlotte, NC to head up Dale Earnhardt Enterprises, one of the largest NASCAR operations in the world.

Siegel has over fifteen years of brokering deals and project management and is known for his shrewd and savvy business expertise, an accomplished entertainment executive, attorney, author, conference organizer and television & film producer. Siegel is also one of the most sought after persons in the entertainment industry and has appeared on Oprah, twice in one year; Tavis Smiley’s NPR and has been featured in national major media outlets such as The New York Times, Crain’s New York Business, Black Enterprise, Billboard Magazine and The Belle Report.

He is a cum laude graduate from the University of Notre Dame School of Law. While enrolled as a student, he made history at Notre Dame as the first African American to graduate with honors from the School of Law. During the past 12 years, the Indianapolis native has also presided over the legal affairs for several Fortune 500 corporations, as well as professional sports, entertainment individuals and organizations. Siegel’s legal expertise and business acumen has afforded him the reputation as a “win-win attorney” among his peers, and has played a major role in the shaping of sports athletes as Tony Gwynn and Reggie White.

With his new position, under the Dale Earnhardt Enterprises umbrella, Siegel will have another chance in helping to shape another world…this one involving NASCAR, with responsibilities including overseeing several race car teams, car dealerships, an airline, thoroughbred race horses, 500 employees and so much more.

Siegel says, “I was presented an awesome opportunity, that just came out of no where and I just couldn’t pass it up.”

His departure, however will not be abrupt. Siegel says, “I will still be hands on for a while helping with the transition of the company.” He also adds the Stellar Awards will be his last industry public appearance for a while.

However, as he makes his departure, he will leave behind a powerhouse that he help build. Its roster consists of some of the top gospel artists in the world including Kirk Franklin, Fred Hammond, Deitrick Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Keith “Wonderboy” Johnson, Andrae Crouch, Donald Lawrence, Richard Smallwood, Tonex, Marvin Sapp, Joann Rosario, 7 Sons of Soul, John P. Kee and several others. Verity Records also has 7 of the top ten charted records and it has earned 42% of all gospel sales.

As for the transition in leadership at Verity, not much difficulty there either. The former Senior Vice President/General Manager of Verity Records, Jazzy Jordan, will be packing up his bags from his recently formed company, Jordan Entertainment Group, and returning to the label he once called home…Zomba Gospel Label Group. He will be heading up both Verity and GospoCentric Records and all of Zomba’s Gospel efforts…as early as today! Continuing to run the day to day operations at Jordan Entertainment Group will be Jesse Thompson.

Jordan says he will be retaining the same title he left with while working at Verity and will be returning to the company under his own terms. Jordan says, at this juncture there will not be a President of Verity Records.

The initial call came from Siegel to Jordan about two weeks ago. It was over the weekend, when the deal was finally finalized. Jordan says, “At this point I don’t see any other staff changes, but there could be some adjustments once everything is figured out.”

Overall, Jordan is excited about the opportunity and says, “Hopefully my position will offer artists from Jordon Entertainment a little more clout.”