Michael G. Rubin is an American businessman. He is the executive chairman of Fanatics, the world's leading provider of licensed sports merchandise; and Rue Gilt Groupe, the premier off-price e-commerce portofilo company. He previously founded GSI Commerce in 1998, selling it to eBay in 2011 for $2.4 billion. Most recently, Rubin started the viral “All In Challenge”, where celebrities, influencers and brands donated valuable possessions or once-in-a lifetime experiences to raise $60 million to fight food insecurity during the Covid-19 pandemic. Rubin also is a co-owner of the Philadelphia 76ersbasketball team and the New Jersey Devils hockey team. He is also the co-chair of the Reform Alliance, a criminal justice reform organization that he launched in January 2019, together with Jay-Z, Meek Mill, Robert Kraft, Robert F. Smith, Ciara Wu Tsai, Daniel S. Loeb, Michael Novogratz and Laura Arnold. Rubin has been included in the Forbes 400: The Richest People in America and the Forbes: The World's Billionaires list. His personal wealth, as of January 2019, was valued at $2.9 Billion.
Early life and education
Rubin was born to a Jewish family, the son of Paulette and Ken Rubin. His mother is a psychiatrist and his father is a veterinarian. He grew up in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania where he started a ski-tuning shop in his parents' basement when he was 12 and two years later - using $2,500 in bar mitzvah gifts as seed capital and a lease signed by his father - he opened a formal ski shop in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. named Mike's Ski and Sport. By the age of 16, he was some $120,000 in debt and was able to settle with his creditors using a $37,000 loan from his father under the condition he attend college. Rubin agreed, continuing to operate the business, which grew to five ski shops before he entered college. He attended Villanova University for a semester before dropping out after realizing a large gain on an opportunistic transaction.
Career
Using the proceeds from his serendipitous overstock transaction and after selling his ski shops, he went on to found the athletic equipment closeout company KPR sports - named after his parents' initials - which bought and sold over-stock name brand merchandise. In 1993, the year Rubin turned 21, KPR reached $1 million in annual sales; by 1995, KPR reached $50 million in sales. In 1995, Rubin purchased 40% of the women's athletic shoe manufacturer Ryka. In 1998, Rubin created Global Sports, which would later turn into GSI Commerce, a multibillion-dollar e-commerce company. At 38, Rubin sold GSI to eBay for $2.4 billion reaping a $150 million windfall. As eBay just wanted the order fulfillment business for large retailers so it could better compete with Amazon.com, Rubin was able to buy back the consumer businesses of GSI at a fire sale price. He repurchased: Fanatics, Inc., a licensed sports merchandiser; Rue La La, a flash seller, and Shop Runner, a retail benefits program, merging the three companies into a new entity named Kynetic. Rubin serves as executive chairman on each of his three companies' boards. In 2019, it was announced on CNBC that Simon Property Group would team up with Rubin to take their mall inventory online and contribute $280 million to the venture.
In addition to appearing in Forbes, Rubin has been interviewed or quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Entrepreneur, and People Magazine. In 2010, he appeared in the premiere season of the CBS television showUndercover Boss, where he worked undercover in GSI Commerce's warehouse and call center. Once his identity was revealed at the end of the show, he gave an employee, who had recently struggled with the death of a baby, $10,000 so he and the baby's mother could have a dream wedding. Rubin has been a featured speaker and panelist at e-commerce and sports industry events including the Shop.org 2014 Summit, the MIT SloanSports Analytics 2014 and 2015 Conferences.
Accolades
Rubin was honored by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship at its Philadelphia Visionary Gala in 2011 for representing "the true spirit and determination of an entrepreneur" and serving as an inspiration to NFTE students. In 2011, Forbes named him one of the year's "20 Most Powerful CEOs 40 and Under."
Personal life
An avid sports fan since his youth, Rubin lives in the Philadelphia area, near where he grew up. Rubin is divorced from local dance teacher Meegan Rubin. They have one daughter. He formerly dated CNN news anchor, Nicole Lapin. Rubin is close personal friends with rapper Meek Mill, advocating for his release from jail in 2018. In 2018, it was reported that Rubin purchased a $43.5 million penthouse in Manhattan.
