President of the GMA Resigns After Years of Service

Frank Breeden, President of the Gospel Music Association and the Christian Music Trade Association has resigned as president of both organizations. A GMA spokesperson commented that though Breeden was not asked to resign, he chose not to renew his contract in pursuit of different business opportunities. Breeden will remain on staff until Jan. 31 and will serve as a consultant for the GMA through April 30.

GMA Board Chairman John W. Styll will assume the duties of interim president of both organizations on Feb. 1 but is working with Breeden in resolving transitional issues.

"The Gospel Music Association has made tremendous progress under Frank's leadership and we thank him for his service to our industry," Styll said in a prepared statement. "He has provided the GMA and CMTA with strong leadership and has helped to bring the visibility of our organization and industry to an all-time high. I'm grateful for his desire to make a smooth leadership transition and look forward to his assistance in the months ahead."

"I would like to thank the directors and employees of the GMA and CMTA for their steadfast support and effort during my tenure as president," Breeden said. "Together, we have grown the industry and reputation of Christian and gospel music throughout the world. We have built bridges with many different communities to make the GMA as inclusive and diverse as possible and succeeded at making the national media take notice of our growing genre."

Breeden, after serving on the GMA board of directors for 9 years, became president of the GMA and CMTA in 1997. Under Breeden's leadership, the GMA and CMTA mad significant advances including the acquisition of Seminar in the Rockies at Estes Park; the addition of the Dove Awards to the National Association of Recording Merchandiser's (NARM) official merchandising campaigns for general market retailers; and the launch of the GMA's Internet presence with gospelmusic.org, doveawards.com and cmta.com.

Throughout his career, Breeden served as executive producer for GMA's television specials, and also worked with the White House in producing the exclusive "White House Salute to Gospel Music." Breeden was instrumental in legislative issues, including the recent resolution of differences between the Recording Industry Association of America.

By Pauline C.