Matthew E. Rubel (born November 29, 1957) is an American entrepreneur and investor. He is the former chairman, chief executive officer, and president of Collective Brands, Inc., the parent company for

Payless ShoeSource Payless (formerly known as Payless ShoeSource Inc.) is an international discount footwear chain. Established in 1956 by cousins Louis and Shaol Pozez, Payless was a privately held company owned by Blum Capital, and Golden Gate Capital. In 1961, ...

, a footwear, accessory, and lifestyle brand company, Collective Brands' Performance + Lifestyles Group (formerly

Stride Rite Corporation Stride Rite, formerly the Stride Rite Corporation and stylized in all lowercase, is an American children's footwear company. The company markets Stride Rite products globally through brand licensee Vida Shoes International. History Founding an ...

), and Collective Licensing International.

Education

Rubel was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He attended

Ohio University Ohio University is a public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confederation and subseq ...

, where he obtained a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

in 1979. He then obtained an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from the University of Miami School of Business at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...

in 1980.

Career

Rubel started his career at

Bonwit Teller Bonwit Teller & Co. was an American luxury department store in New York City, New York, founded by Paul Bonwit in 1895 at Sixth Avenue and 18th Street, and later a chain of department stores. In 1897, Edmund D. Teller was admitted to the par ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, and later became executive vice president of Murjani International Ltd., where he was in charge of all

Tommy Hilfiger Thomas Jacob Hilfiger ( /hɪlˈfɪgər/; born March 24, 1951) is an American fashion designer and the founder of Tommy Hilfiger Corporation. After starting his career by co-founding a chain of jeans/fashion stores called People's Place in upst ...

businesses. After leaving Murjani, Rubel served as president and chief executive officer of Pepe Jeans USA and managed Revlon Inc.'s prestige cosmetic brands as president of the Specialty Store Division. From 1994 to 1999, he served as executive vice president of

J. Crew J.Crew Group, Inc., is an American multi-brand, multi-channel, specialty retailer. The company offers an assortment of women's, men's, and children's apparel and accessories, including swimwear, outerwear, lounge-wear, bags, sweaters, denim, dr ...

Group and the CEO of Popular Club Plan. In November 1998, he led the sale of Popular Club from J. Crew to

Fingerhut Fingerhut is an American catalog/ online retailer. Fingerhut was founded in 1948 by William Fingerhut and his brother Manny, selling automobile seat covers. In 1952, the business repositioned itself as a mail order catalog company and diversif ...

, the largest independent direct marketer in the United States. While at J. Crew, Rubel handled all licensing and international and brand marketing. From 1999 to 2005, Rubel was chairman, president, and chief executive officer of

Cole Haan Cole Haan is an American brand of men's and women's footwear and accessories that serves markets worldwide. The company was founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1928. Cole Haan currently has its headquarters in both New York City and Greenland, New Ha ...

, a leading marketer of high quality men's and women's shoes and accessories and a subsidiary of

Nike, Inc. Nike, Inc. ( or ) is an American multinational corporation that is engaged in the design, development, manufacturing, and worldwide marketing and sales of footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories, and services. The company is headquartered ne ...

At Cole Haan, Rubel led a multi-year turnaround, and guided the company into a new era by re-energizing the brand and creating a strong global presence. Rubel joined Payless ShoeSource in June 2005. In July 2007, Rubel led the acquisition of The Stride Rite Corporation and the formation of Collective Brands, Inc. (

NYSE The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its liste ...

: PSS), the parent company of Payless ShoeSource, Collective Brands Performance + Lifestyle Group and Collective Licensing International. In December 2007, ''

Footwear News ''Footwear News'' (sometimes referred to as ''FN'') is a weekly print publication on the topic of women's, men's, and children's footwear. Founded in 1945, its coverage is for the fashion design and fashion retail industries. It was originally pub ...

'' named Rubel their 2007 "Person of the Year" in recognition of his leadership in forming Collective Brands and establishing the company's vision of creating the preeminent, consumer-centric, global footwear, accessories and lifestyle brand company, reaching customers through multiple price points and selling channels. The year prior, ''Footwear News'' awarded Payless its "Marketer of the Year" award in recognition of its turnaround effort under Rubel's leadership. In April 2008, Rubel received the M.B. Zale Visionary Merchant Award from

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

. In 2011, Rubel resigned from Collective Brands and joined TPG Capital as a senior advisor. In 2015, Rubel left TPG to join Roark Capital as a senior advisor, before joining Varsity Brands as chief executive officer. Rubel left Varsity Brands in early 2017. Rubel is active in several industry and civic organizations, including the Advisory Council for Trade Policy Negotiation, which provides counsel to

The White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 180 ...

and

USTR The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is an agency of the United States federal government responsible for developing and promoting American trade policy. Part of the Executive Office of the President, it is headed by the ...

, the Jay H. Baker Center at the

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, the

Young Presidents' Organization YPO (formerly Young Presidents' Organization) is an American-based worldwide leadership community of chief executives with approximately 29,000 members in more than 130 countries, according to the organization's 2019 YPO international fact sheet. ...

, and the President's Council at his alma mater, the

. He is chairman of the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America and a member of the American Ballet Theatre board of governing trustees and the

International Council of Shopping Centers The International Council of Shopping Centers, doing business as ICSC, is the global trade association of what it calls the "Marketplaces Industry" (i.e., shopping centers, shopping malls, and all other retail real estate). Founded in 1957, it fea ...

board of trustees. He is a board member for SuperValu, HSNi,

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...

, A.T. Cross Pen, and

Edible Communities Edible Communities is a group of independently owned local food magazines in North America, numbering 81 as of June 2013. Edible Communities is a publishing and information services company that creates community-based, local-foods publications i ...

References

External links

Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce

Collective Brands

Payless ShoeSource

Collective Licensing International

Jay H. Baker Initiative
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rubel, Matthew E. American chief executives 1957 births Living people University of Miami Business School alumni Ohio University alumni