Catching Up With New DEI Exec Max Siegel

Siegel Jumps From Music Industry Into Driver Seat Of DEI

Max Siegel was the first African-American to graduate with honors from Notre Dame Law School and has held leadership positions with the American Bar Association, N.Y. Bar Association, Indiana State Bar Association, Gospel Heritage Foundation and the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences. Through the course of his career Siegel has provided legal counsel to Fortune 500 companies and pro sports teams such as the Mariners, has managed the careers of late Pro Football HOFer Reggie White and Baseball HOF-elect Tony Gwynn, and most recently has served as Senior VP of Zomba Label Group and President of Zomba Gospel, where he worked with acts such as Britney Spears, Usher and R. Kelly. Now as he begins his new position as DEI President of Global Operations, Siegel will play a major role in negotiations to re-sign Dale Earnhardt Jr. A long-time race fan, Siegel grew up in the shadows of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and, along with White, Pro Football HOFer Ronnie Lott and former 49ers Owner Eddie DeBartolo, had explored acquiring an ownership stake in a NASCAR team before putting those plans on hold when White unexpectedly died in ’04. As he begins his first season in NASCAR, Siegel spoke with Staff Writer Jim Bentubo about joining DEI and his goals for the team.

Q: After working as a music executive, what motivated you to change professions?

Siegel: Sports has always been a really big part of my professional life and a passion of mine. I spent the last nine-and-a-half years as a music executive, and really what piqued my interest over the last five years was how much sports and entertainment started doing a lot of joint projects together in the NFL. I have felt -- and I still feel -- sporting competition to the fans is a form of entertainment, so it’s always been intriguing to me how those two work together.

Q: How did your new position with DEI come about?

Siegel: [DEI Owner Teresa Earnhardt] and I had become acquainted and we started talking about her wanting to focus on making sure the company was ready to go into the next five or ten years at the top of the sport. I liked her vision and she invited me to join the organization.

Q: What do you think your experience and background in the entertainment industry will bring to DEI and the sport of racing, and as an outsider what new perspective are you bringing to the sport?

Siegel: As a motorsports outsider but as a fan, I bring a passion for the sport without any preconceived notions of the boundaries of where you can take it. One of the things we’ve focused on in the entertainment world is building brands domestically and internationally and coming up with new creative ways to develop content to make sure the fan base is super served, you have to exceed the fans expectations. What we found in the entertainment field is that the fans and the consumer have become more demanding in that they expect a comprehensive experience for the money that they’re paying. With new media and a digital age, the reach of any product and service can go worldwide instantaneously. There’s a lot of interesting things that happen within this sport.

Q: Have you noticed any major similarities or differences between the music industry and the motorsports industry?

Siegel: I think that there are a lot of similarities. The professional athletes [in NASCAR] are world class, highly accomplished individuals very similar to the talent that drives the [entertainment] business. There are also a lot of operational similarities that require a lot of capital to finance the sport, and I think that many fans and many people who look at what happens on the track on Sunday have no idea of the complexity of carrying on the sport and the magnitude of the investment behind the scenes. The other thing is you have to balance. In music, you’re balancing someone’s artistic views against running a commercial and fiscally responsible company. And in competition there’s so much technology and so many cutting-edge ways to improve performance, but you have to figure out how to do that in the context of running a business that will sustain itself over a long period of time.

Siegel Says NASCAR Has Been "Fairly Aggressive" In Recent Diversity Efforts

Q: As one of the highest-ranking African Americans in NASCAR, what do you feel are some steps the sport must take to appeal to more minorities?

Siegel: NASCAR has been fairly aggressive in the last few years in trying to figure out outreach ways to introduce itself to the minority communities. A lot of times you can legislate behavior, but it takes interaction to impact attitude, so I want to do the best that I possibly can as an executive to let those who have not encountered talented African-American executives know there is a talent pool out there. Then you start to get this kind of word-of-mouth introduction of the sport to the various minority communities. When people are introduced to [NASCAR], this is addicting. It’s as exciting as any other sport and it appeals to people regardless of their race and their gender and their age. A lot of it is being able to have the right distribution channels to introduce the sport into those communities, and then it’s like anything else where people have something they can relate to and they start to take a deeper interest in the sport. I intend to do things through the natural course of business, whether it’s through internships or identifying quality individuals to become part of the organization. But partnering with NASCAR, trying to figure out what their initiatives are and helping them execute them are things that are really critical to introducing the sport to a wider audience.

Q: From a business perspective, what are the top goals you would like to accomplish at DEI?

Siegel Feels Earnhardt Jr. Integral Part Of DEI

Siegel: My number one goal more than anything else is to not just be competitive but to win championships, because I realize that the foundation of your brand and anything else that you do, the value of it goes up when you’re successful at your core business. I am comprehensively evaluating and sitting down with the motorsports division and the drivers to figure out what their needs are to ensure that we’re at the top of the pack. My second goal is to figure out every possible way I can dream of, along with my team, to take care of the fan base that supports the sport and to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to become partners with our commercial partners and our sponsors. Then probably the third priority would be to grow the business and develop additional revenue streams so we can continue to reinvest back into the motorsports area.

Q: How important is Dale Earnhardt Jr. to DEI and can the organization survive without him?

Siegel: There is absolutely no question that he is an incredibly successful, important individual for not only DEI but for the sport. I think that the reason for his success is that he is competitive and he has great character and he has great drive, and I’d like to think based on what I see, a great part of that is from his heritage and the legacy Dale Sr. built. I haven’t given much thought to DEI without Dale Jr. nor the success of the company, because I think that the Earnhardt legacy is an important one not just on the race track but really how the family has impacted culture. So my 100% focus right now is to try and figure out a way that we can have a mutually beneficial relationship over a very, very long period of time.