Marketing expert Ira Rubien joins the Wharton Dean’s Office as the Executive Director of Communications. He will work with colleagues throughout the School to develop a long-term strategic plan for building the Wharton brand via innovative and ongoing public communications efforts.
Rubien comes to Wharton from GRACO (Newell Rubbermaid) Children’s Products. As director of marketing and brand management for the nursery and care division, he developed and oversaw the implementation of a new vision for the 50-year-old global brand. Before joining GRACO, he was senior brand manager at Mattel, where he conceived and launched Matchbox’s 50th anniversary marketing program, which led to a dramatic 600 percent profit growth and earned him Mattel’s Outstanding Marketing Campaign award. He has also worked in the Internet marketing space at Addis and Headland Digital Media, both digital marketing firms in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Rubien earned his MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and his BS in information systems and industrial management from Carnegie Mellon University.
