Warner Bros. Records has announced that renowned record producer and music publishing executive Mark Bright has been named President and CEO of Word Entertainment. He succeeds Word’s CEO Jim Van Hook, who retired after more than 30 successful years in the faith-based music industry.
Bright launched his production career in 1993 with the country group Blackhawk, who went on to score two No. 1 singles, nine Top Ten singles, and multi-platinum album sales. He is a veteran record producer who has worked with multi-platinum artists like Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts, Sara Evans, Billy Ray Cyrus, and Mark Schultz. He produced both of Underwood’s best-selling albums, the multi-platinum Some Hearts, which spawned the Grammy Award-winning single “Jesus Take the Wheel” and the star’s biggest single to date “Before He Cheats,” and Carnival Ride, which debuted at No. 1 and has scored two No. 1 singles.

He formerly served as Vice President of EMI Music Publishing and co-founded one of the most successful co-ventures, Teracel Music, whose staff writers included Brett James, Rascal Flatts, and Danny Wells. The Teracel catalog includes No. 1 hits by Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, Martina McBride and Jessica Andrews.
It’ll be interesting to see what direction Word takes with a new chief at the helm. There have been some changes at the label over the past year or so as the economy has taken its toll, like the rest of the America.
Word Records family includes Myrrh, Fervent, Word and Canaan Records. I see the Word roster list has become more varied; they’re added some Southern Gospel acts (The Hoppers, The Mike LeFevre Quartet, Mike and Kelly Bowling) with the addition of Canaan Records, to a line up that includes rock, pop and hip hop acts like Group 1 Crew, Remedy Drive, Stellar Kart and BarlowGirl.
For more about Word Records and Mark Bright, visit the Word Records website.