Founder and CEO, Kynetic
Executive Chairman, Fanatics
Co-Owner, Philadelphia 76ers
Michael G. Rubin, noted entrepreneur and e-commerce titan, recently founded Kynetic (www.kynetic.com), a private company based in Conshohocken, PA, that is focused on building businesses at the forefront of online commerce. It consists of three brands: Fanatics (www.fanatics.com), the world’s leading online retailer of licensed sports merchandise, Rue La La (www.ruelala.com), one of the top online private sale destinations in U.S., and ShopRunner (www.shoprunner.com), an innovative members-only service which aggregates shopping benefits from the top retailers and brands. Expected to gross over $1 billion in revenue in its first full year of operations in 2012, Kynetic is one of the largest private tech companies in the world.
Prior to Kynetic, Mr. Rubin was Founder & CEO of GSI Commerce, a company he built into a formidable global network of e-commerce, multi-channel and digital marketing businesses servicing 150 of the top 500 Internet retailers, including Toys”R”Us, Dell, Polo Ralph Lauren, Estée Lauder, Aéropostale, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Bath & Body Works, and PetSmart. Under his guidance, GSI became one of the largest publicly-traded Internet companies, facilitating billions of dollars of merchandise sales for its customers. GSI Commerce was sold to eBay for $2.4 billion in 2011.
Mr. Rubin started his entrepreneurial career in 1985, when, at the age of 12, he opened a ski-tuning shop in his parents’ Philadelphia basement. With his earnings, he rented space in a strip mall for “Mike’s Ski Shop” by the time he was 14. Within a year of graduating high school, Mr. Rubin had opened several retail ski stores in Pennsylvania and New York. He went on to found KPR Sports, a leading distributor of off-price sporting goods and footwear. In 1997, he merged KPR Sports with publicly-traded Ryka, a branded athletic footwear company that he controlled, to form Global Sports Inc. (GSI). The following year, Global Sports generated sales exceeding $100 million, and at age 25, Mr. Rubin became one of the youngest CEOs of a NASDAQ-listed company in the history of the exchange. The success of GSI Commerce and Mr. Rubin’s outstanding achievements landed him a spot on the inaugural season of CBS’ hit show “Undercover Boss,” as well as recognition in numerous publications and media including The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, The New York Times, BusinessWeek and People. Forbes named him one of 2010’s “15 Most Powerful CEOs 40 and Under.”
