Michael G. Rubin Biography

Michael G. Rubin (born 1972) is the founder and CEO of Kynetic, an e-commerce services company. The company was recently valued at $1 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 a veterinarian. He grew up in West Philadelphia 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. By the age of 16, he was some $200,000 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 (buying $200,000 in overstock equipment with $17,000 borrowed from a friend and re-selling it for $75,000).

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 multi-billion dollar e-commerce company. At 38, Rubin sold his company GSI Commerce 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, 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 companies' boards.

Rubin played a role in the CBS television show Undercover Boss. He has been mentioned in The New York Times, and People Magazine. Forbes named him one of 2011's "20 Most Powerful CEOs 40 and Under."

Philadelphia 76er ownership

In October 2011, Rubin bought a minority share in the Philadelphia 76ers. Rubin is a member of the investment group that won a $280 million bid for the team. The other members of the investment group are: Joshua Harris of the private equity firm Apollo Global Management, portfolio manager Art Wrubel, former NBA agent and Sacramento Kings executive Jason Levien, former Vail Resorts CEO Adam Aron, Martin Geller, David Heller, Travis Hennings, James Lassiter, David S. Blitzer, Will Smith & Jada Pinkett Smith, and Indonesian businessmen Handy Soetedjo & Erick Thohir. Comcast-Spectacor began talks with the investment group in the summer of 2011. The deal was announced on July 13, 2011. The NBA formally approved the deal on October 13, 2011.

Personal life

Rubin is divorced from dancer Meegan Rubin. They have one daughter Kylie. He lives with his girlfriend CNN and CNBC anchor Nicole Lapin.

References and footnotes