Alumni Spotlight: Max Siegel ’86 BA ’92 JD
President of Global Operations, Dale Earnhardt Inc.
In NASCAR, no two racetracks are alike. Some are short; some are long. Some trace simple ovals; others offer unexpected twists and turns. A few have curves with steep banks—so only drivers with skill and speed finish ahead of the pack.
Max Siegel ’86 B.A. and ’92 J.D., the president of global operations for Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI), sees parallels between racing and his own unconventional career path. After earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Notre Dame, he graduated from the Law School with honors and worked as a sports and entertainment attorney at Baker & Daniels in Indianapolis, Ind. Siegel next started his own practice where he represented athletes like Reggie White and Tony Gwynn. Later, he joined the Global Management team for Sony BMG Music Entertainment, serving as senior vice president of Sony/BMG’s Zomba Label Group and president of Zomba Gospel, the largest Gospel music company in the world.
In 2007, he took the helm at Dale Earnhardt Inc., one of the most successful enterprises in NASCAR. The move surprised racing fans not just because of Siegel’s entertainment background, but because it made him the highest ranking executive and only African American team president in the sport.
Siegel says he’s always felt like he was in the driver’s seat when it came to his career. “Each step of the way, I was looking for something that would give me a great foundation and expand my skill set,” he says. “What motivated me to move forward and make a change was the combination of an opportunity being interesting from a personal level and challenging from a skill development level.”
As DEI’s president for global operations, Siegel oversees the entire organization including marketing, promotion, sales, sponsorship and distribution for all the company’s properties (including its top-rated motor sports teams, airlines, licensing and auto dealership), as well as the Dale Earnhardt Foundation. Siegel says the business and legal challenges of running the company appealed to him from the start, but so did the chance to be a trailblazer.
“It’s rare that you get an opportunity to impact an organization, an industry and a culture,” Siegel says. “In this job, I have a unique opportunity to do all of those things at once, and to expose this sport to a wider audience, to take this company in a new direction and to educate people—the fans and the business associates and everyone else—that there’s a big world out there.”
For Siegel and many other Notre Dame Law graduates, the world is far bigger than work. Last year, the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding honored him for his efforts to promote better relations between the African-American and Jewish communities through his work in the music industry. He and his wife, Jennifer Satterfield Siegel, recently created a foundation that will award grants to charitable organizations that deal with the educational, emotional and physical well being of children.
Siegel’s advice to young lawyers is to pursue their passions, but learn as much as they can about the legal area they want to practice in before hitting the job market. “The basic skills in the sports and entertainment field that people should concentrate on are intellectual property and general business law,” he says. “It’s an industry where relationships, networking, marketing, knowing who is doing what and being relevant in the marketplace are as important as having the technical skills to do the job.”
“The most important thing that I look for when I’m trying to hire someone is not just their passion for the industry, but whether they really understand what it is that I need to get done,” Siegel adds.
“And of course, if someone sends me a résumé from Notre Dame, it’s going to catch my eye.”
To learn more about Max Siegel, visit his Alumni Profile page.
