Jen Rubio

Jennifer Rubio (born 1986 or 1987^[1]) is an American businesswoman. She is the co-founder, executive chair, and former chief executive officer of Away, a luggage manufacturer and retailer.^[2] Rubio was head of social media at Warby Parker^[3][4] and global director of innovation at fashion company AllSaints.^[5]

Jennifer Rubio
Born	1986 or 1987 (age 37–38) Philippines
Education	Pennsylvania State University (dropped out)
Occupation	Businesswoman
Known for	Co-founder and former CEO of Away
Title	Executive chair of Away
Spouse	Stewart Butterfield ​ (m. 2020)​
Children	2

Early life

Rubio was born in the Philippines, and moved to New Jersey when she was seven years old.^[6] She grew up traveling, and lived in seven cities on three continents.^[5][7] When she was young, Rubio bought a lemonade stand from another child who lived on her street for $20 which she borrowed from her father. She has called it her first merger and acquisition.^[2] Rubio later went on to attend college at Penn State University, where she pursued a supply-chain management major. She was placed at Johnson & Johnson as part of Penn State's co-op program.^[8] After discovering her desire to be a businesswoman, Rubio dropped out of Penn State just a few credits shy of graduating, in order to pursue a full-time role at Neutrogena, a company with whom she did another co-op.

Career

In 2011, Rubio joined Warby Parker, leading the company's early content and partnership work as its head of social media.^[9] She met Away co-founder Stephanie Korey during her time at Warby Parker.^[10] In 2013, she left Warby Parker and went to London,^[11][12] where she was global director of innovation for clothing brand AllSaints.^[4][13][14] She spent much of a year traveling for the position.^[15]

Before Warby Parker, Rubio held different marketing and social media roles, working for brands on the agency side and in-house.^[16] She also taught social media as an adjunct professor at Miami Ad School.^[17] She has been a guest lecturer at Hyper Island, New York University, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern University, and Harvard University.^[18]

Rubio co-founded Away, a direct-to-consumer travel and luggage company, with Stephanie Korey, who also worked at Warby Parker.^[14] By 2017, Rubio and Korey had raised $31 million, making it one of the largest seed financed female-backed startups.^[19] She was CEO of the company from 2021 to 2025, when she transitioned to the role of executive chair.^[20]

Personal life

In May 2019, Rubio got engaged to her boyfriend, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield.^[21] They married in 2020 and share two children.^[22]