Canonical URL: https://giftcard.news/rewards-loyalty/rick-rubin-incentive-gift-card-executive-dies/ --- description: Rick Rubin, whose gift-card career included iRewardify, Wolfe, Payouts Network and NGC, died on August 9. IMA announced his death on August 14. title: Incentive gift-card executive Rick Rubin dies at 55 image: https://giftcard.news/images/social/v1/incentive-gift-card-executive-rick-rubin-dies-55-66a04195b7bff1c7023fb2d322e55e41.jpg --- 1. [Home](https://giftcard.news/) 2. [Rewards & Loyalty](https://giftcard.news/rewards-loyalty/) # Incentive gift-card executive Rick Rubin dies at 55 Rick Rubin, whose gift-card career included iRewardify, Wolfe, Payouts Network and NGC, died on August 9\. IMA announced his death on August 14. By [Maya Bennett](https://giftcard.news/author/maya-bennett/) August 9, 2026 2 min read [ Google News ](https://google.com/preferences/source?q=giftcard.news&utm%5Fsource=giftcard.news&utm%5Fcampaign=giftcard.news) Share [ ](https://x.com/intent/post?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgiftcard.news%2Frewards-loyalty%2Frick-rubin-incentive-gift-card-executive-dies%2F%3Futm%5Fsource%3Dx%26utm%5Fmedium%3Dsocial&text=Incentive+gift-card+executive+Rick+Rubin+dies+at+55&utm%5Fsource=giftcard.news&utm%5Fcampaign=giftcard.news "X") [ ](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgiftcard.news%2Frewards-loyalty%2Frick-rubin-incentive-gift-card-executive-dies%2F%3Futm%5Fsource%3Dlinkedin%26utm%5Fmedium%3Dsocial&utm%5Fsource=giftcard.news&utm%5Fcampaign=giftcard.news "LinkedIn") [ ](https://wa.me/?text=Incentive+gift-card+executive+Rick+Rubin+dies+at+55+https%3A%2F%2Fgiftcard.news%2Frewards-loyalty%2Frick-rubin-incentive-gift-card-executive-dies%2F%3Futm%5Fsource%3Dwhatsapp%26utm%5Fmedium%3Dsocial&utm%5Fsource=giftcard.news&utm%5Fcampaign=giftcard.news "WhatsApp") ![Portrait of Rick Rubin](https://giftcard.news/images/variants/v1/incentive-gift-card-executive-rick-rubin-dies-55-portrait-w400.webp) Rick Rubin. Source: Incentive Marketing Association. Photo: Incentive Marketing Association [Rick Rubin](https://giftcard.news/person/rick-rubin/), a sales and partnerships executive who spent more than two decades in the incentive gift-card industry, died on August 9 at the age of 55, according to the [Incentive Marketing Association](https://giftcard.news/organization/incentive-marketing-association/). The association announced his death in a notice dated August 14\. [\[S01\]](#article-source-1) Rubin was a former IMA board director and a longstanding member of both IMA and its [Incentive Gift Card Coalition](https://giftcard.news/organization/incentive-gift-card-coalition-organization-7c9d3a0b/). His career included senior commercial roles across several businesses serving the gift-card and rewards market. ## A career across gift-card sales and partnerships IMA identified Rubin as vice president of sales at [iRewardify](https://giftcard.news/company/irewardify/). His earlier positions included vice president of sales and partnerships at [Wolfe](https://giftcard.news/company/wolfe/), vice president of sales at [Payouts Network](https://giftcard.news/company/payouts-network/), and executive vice president of strategic partnerships at [NGC](https://giftcard.news/company/ngc/). [\[S01\]](#article-source-1) Those roles placed his work in the commercial relationships through which incentive programmes source and deliver rewards. The association's notice focused on his contribution to that industry community and his service to IMA, rather than announcing a business succession or changes to any company's operations. Rubin lived in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. IMA described him as an influential member of the incentive industry and said his contributions and friendships would be remembered by colleagues. The notice did not state a cause of death. [\[S01\]](#article-source-1) ## Colleagues organise a tribute The association said Matt Kerper, a past president of IGCC, was coordinating a memory book for Rubin's family. Colleagues were invited to contribute personal or professional recollections and photographs. [\[S01\]](#article-source-1) The August 14 notice records a loss across the gift-card trade community, linking Rubin's association service with a career spanning several incentive businesses. His death on August 9 is the underlying event date; the later notice is the source of the public announcement. ## In this article ### Companies * [NGC](https://giftcard.news/company/ngc/) * [Payouts Network](https://giftcard.news/company/payouts-network/) * [Wolfe](https://giftcard.news/company/wolfe/) * [iRewardify](https://giftcard.news/company/irewardify/) ### People * [Rick Rubin](https://giftcard.news/person/rick-rubin/) ### Organizations * [Incentive Gift Card Coalition](https://giftcard.news/organization/incentive-gift-card-coalition-organization-7c9d3a0b/) * [Incentive Marketing Association](https://giftcard.news/organization/incentive-marketing-association/) ### Sources and documents * [\[S01\] IMA official announcement](https://www.usegiftcards.org/IMA/News/Industry-News/2026/In-Memoriam-Richard-Harold-Rubin.aspx?utm%5Fsource=giftcard.news&utm%5Fcampaign=giftcard.news) — Incentive Marketing Association Share [ ](https://x.com/intent/post?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgiftcard.news%2Frewards-loyalty%2Frick-rubin-incentive-gift-card-executive-dies%2F%3Futm%5Fsource%3Dx%26utm%5Fmedium%3Dsocial&text=Incentive+gift-card+executive+Rick+Rubin+dies+at+55&utm%5Fsource=giftcard.news&utm%5Fcampaign=giftcard.news "X") [ ](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgiftcard.news%2Frewards-loyalty%2Frick-rubin-incentive-gift-card-executive-dies%2F%3Futm%5Fsource%3Dlinkedin%26utm%5Fmedium%3Dsocial&utm%5Fsource=giftcard.news&utm%5Fcampaign=giftcard.news "LinkedIn") [ ](https://wa.me/?text=Incentive+gift-card+executive+Rick+Rubin+dies+at+55+https%3A%2F%2Fgiftcard.news%2Frewards-loyalty%2Frick-rubin-incentive-gift-card-executive-dies%2F%3Futm%5Fsource%3Dwhatsapp%26utm%5Fmedium%3Dsocial&utm%5Fsource=giftcard.news&utm%5Fcampaign=giftcard.news "WhatsApp") ![Portrait of Maya Bennett](https://giftcard.news/images/variants/v1/maya-bennett-editorial-portrait-w320.webp) About the author ## [Maya Bennett](https://giftcard.news/author/maya-bennett/) Journalist — Rewards & Loyalty Maya Bennett covers customer loyalty, employee rewards and incentive programmes for Gift Card News. From reading to building ## Your next move in gift cards. Tell us what you’re building. We’ll help you explore suitable providers. [Find a provider ](https://giftcard.news/find-a-provider/) ## Related articles [Rewards & Loyalty](https://giftcard.news/rewards-loyalty/) News ### [SOMPO Himawari links instant reward draws to giftee’s gift redemption platform](https://giftcard.news/rewards-loyalty/sompo-himawari-giftee-instant-reward-draws/) [Maya Bennett](https://giftcard.news/author/maya-bennett/) October 26, 2026 4 min [Rewards & Loyalty](https://giftcard.news/rewards-loyalty/) News ### [TOUMEI moves digital-gift shareholder rewards to four annual rounds](https://giftcard.news/rewards-loyalty/toumei-digital-gift-shareholder-rewards-four-annual-rounds/) [Maya Bennett](https://giftcard.news/author/maya-bennett/) October 15, 2026 3 min [Rewards & Loyalty](https://giftcard.news/rewards-loyalty/) News ### [IDOM schedules final generic digital-gift award for November 2027](https://giftcard.news/rewards-loyalty/idom-generic-digital-gift-shareholder-programme-final-award-2027/) [Oliver Reed](https://giftcard.news/author/oliver-reed/) October 14, 2026 2 min ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://giftcard.news/#publisher","name":"Gift Card News","url":"https://giftcard.news/","description":"News and analysis covering gift cards, retail, loyalty, rewards and payments worldwide.","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://giftcard.news/icon-512.png","contentUrl":"https://giftcard.news/icon-512.png","width":512,"height":512,"@id":"https://giftcard.news/#logo"},"publishingPrinciples":"https://giftcard.news/editorial-policy/","correctionsPolicy":"https://giftcard.news/editorial-policy/"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://giftcard.news/#website","url":"https://giftcard.news/","name":"Gift Card News","description":"News and analysis covering gift cards, retail, loyalty, rewards and payments worldwide.","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@id":"https://giftcard.news/#publisher"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https://giftcard.news/search/?q={search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https://giftcard.news/author/maya-bennett/#person","name":"Maya Bennett","url":"https://giftcard.news/author/maya-bennett/","description":"Maya Bennett covers customer loyalty, employee rewards and incentive programmes for Gift Card News.","jobTitle":"Journalist — Rewards & Loyalty","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://giftcard.news/images/maya-bennett-editorial-portrait.webp","contentUrl":"https://giftcard.news/images/maya-bennett-editorial-portrait.webp","width":1254,"height":1254,"caption":"Illustrated portrait representing the Maya Bennett editorial profile.","@id":"https://giftcard.news/images/maya-bennett-editorial-portrait.webp#image","encodingFormat":"image/webp","description":"Illustrated portrait for Maya Bennett, a Gift Card News editorial pen name","creditText":"Gift Card News / AI-generated illustration"}},{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://giftcard.news/images/incentive-gift-card-executive-rick-rubin-dies-55-portrait.webp","contentUrl":"https://giftcard.news/images/incentive-gift-card-executive-rick-rubin-dies-55-portrait.webp","width":400,"height":400,"caption":"Rick Rubin. Source: Incentive Marketing Association.","@id":"https://giftcard.news/images/incentive-gift-card-executive-rick-rubin-dies-55-portrait.webp#image","encodingFormat":"image/webp","description":"Portrait of Rick Rubin","creditText":"Incentive Marketing Association","isBasedOn":"https://www.usegiftcards.org/IMA/News/Industry-News/2026/In-Memoriam-Richard-Harold-Rubin.aspx"},{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://giftcard.news/rewards-loyalty/rick-rubin-incentive-gift-card-executive-dies/#article","url":"https://giftcard.news/rewards-loyalty/rick-rubin-incentive-gift-card-executive-dies/","headline":"Incentive gift-card executive Rick Rubin dies at 55","description":"Rick Rubin, whose gift-card career included iRewardify, Wolfe, Payouts Network and NGC, died on August 9. IMA announced his death on August 14.","datePublished":"2026-08-09T00:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-09-30T05:42:12.705Z","inLanguage":"en","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https://giftcard.news/rewards-loyalty/rick-rubin-incentive-gift-card-executive-dies/#webpage"},"isPartOf":{"@id":"https://giftcard.news/#website"},"isAccessibleForFree":false,"hasPart":[{"@type":"WebPageElement","isAccessibleForFree":false,"cssSelector":".reader-restricted"}],"image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://giftcard.news/images/incentive-gift-card-executive-rick-rubin-dies-55-portrait.webp","contentUrl":"https://giftcard.news/images/incentive-gift-card-executive-rick-rubin-dies-55-portrait.webp","width":400,"height":400,"caption":"Rick Rubin. Source: Incentive Marketing Association.","@id":"https://giftcard.news/images/incentive-gift-card-executive-rick-rubin-dies-55-portrait.webp#image","encodingFormat":"image/webp","description":"Portrait of Rick Rubin","creditText":"Incentive Marketing Association","isBasedOn":"https://www.usegiftcards.org/IMA/News/Industry-News/2026/In-Memoriam-Richard-Harold-Rubin.aspx"}],"articleSection":"Rewards & Loyalty","keywords":["Incentive Gift Card Coalition","Incentive Marketing Association","NGC","Payouts Network","Rick Rubin","Wolfe","iRewardify"],"mentions":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://giftcard.news/organization/incentive-gift-card-coalition-organization-7c9d3a0b/#entity","name":"Incentive Gift Card Coalition","url":"https://giftcard.news/organization/incentive-gift-card-coalition-organization-7c9d3a0b/"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://giftcard.news/organization/incentive-marketing-association/#entity","name":"Incentive Marketing Association","url":"https://giftcard.news/organization/incentive-marketing-association/"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://giftcard.news/company/ngc/#entity","name":"NGC","url":"https://giftcard.news/company/ngc/"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://giftcard.news/company/payouts-network/#entity","name":"Payouts Network","url":"https://giftcard.news/company/payouts-network/"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https://giftcard.news/person/rick-rubin/#entity","name":"Rick Rubin","url":"https://giftcard.news/person/rick-rubin/"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://giftcard.news/company/wolfe/#entity","name":"Wolfe","url":"https://giftcard.news/company/wolfe/"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://giftcard.news/company/irewardify/#entity","name":"iRewardify","url":"https://giftcard.news/company/irewardify/"}],"wordCount":286,"citation":[{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"[S01] IMA official announcement","url":"https://www.usegiftcards.org/IMA/News/Industry-News/2026/In-Memoriam-Richard-Harold-Rubin.aspx","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Incentive Marketing Association"}}],"author":[{"@id":"https://giftcard.news/author/maya-bennett/#person"}],"publisher":{"@id":"https://giftcard.news/#publisher"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://giftcard.news/rewards-loyalty/rick-rubin-incentive-gift-card-executive-dies/#webpage","url":"https://giftcard.news/rewards-loyalty/rick-rubin-incentive-gift-card-executive-dies/","name":"Incentive gift-card executive Rick Rubin dies at 55","description":"Rick Rubin, whose gift-card career included iRewardify, Wolfe, Payouts Network and NGC, died on August 9. IMA announced his death on August 14.","datePublished":"2026-08-09T00:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-09-30T05:42:12.705Z","inLanguage":"en","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://giftcard.news/#website"},"mainEntity":{"@id":"https://giftcard.news/rewards-loyalty/rick-rubin-incentive-gift-card-executive-dies/#article"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https://giftcard.news/rewards-loyalty/rick-rubin-incentive-gift-card-executive-dies/#breadcrumbs"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://giftcard.news/images/incentive-gift-card-executive-rick-rubin-dies-55-portrait.webp#image"}},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https://giftcard.news/rewards-loyalty/rick-rubin-incentive-gift-card-executive-dies/#breadcrumbs","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://giftcard.news/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Rewards & Loyalty","item":"https://giftcard.news/rewards-loyalty/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Incentive gift-card executive Rick Rubin dies at 55","item":"https://giftcard.news/rewards-loyalty/rick-rubin-incentive-gift-card-executive-dies/"}]}]} ```