2010: Charlene Prounis

The Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) recognized Charlene Prounis, board member of the W20 Group, as its 2010 Strategic Transformation Achievement Recognition (STAR). Each year, the HBA honors a STAR who stands apart as an exemplary role model by demonstrating a long-term commitment to the HBA’s strategic goals of furthering the advancement and impact of women in the business of healthcare.

Charlene has been very active in the HBA and served as president on both the corporate and chapter level, first in 1998 as president of the HBA and again in 2004, as chapter president of the NY/NJ region. She has co-chaired the Woman of the Year committee several times, serves as a chapter mentor, and is involved in promotional materials development for the Advancement, Commitment, Engagement (ACE) award. As a mentor, she’s helped many HBA women advance their careers in healthcare.

Charlene’s motto has long been, “If you can dream it up, you can make it happen.” Charlene knows how to dream big. Charlene has always dreamed of helping others and becoming a successful businesswoman. Charlene worked as head nurse of the MICU at North Shore University Hospital before moving into pharmaceutical sales with Searle Labs. She made a career transition into advertising and spent 12 years with Grey Healthcare Advertising. Then she made her entrepreneurial dream come true. Charlene founded Accel Healthcare with other partners and grew it to a top 20 agency before merging it into Corbett Accel.

At the time of accepting this award, Charlene was the managing partner at Flashpoint Medica, where she continued to be a visionary force for her clients' brands. Never content to settle for “good enough,” she constantly challenges herself and her team to come up with innovative ways to launch brands, address changing market dynamics, and drive sales. She runs workshops for clients on everything from positioning to speaker training. Charlene is also focused on empowering future generations to make their own dreams come true by serving as the leader of her daughter’s Girl Scout troop. With Charlene’s adventurous spirit and propensity for innovation, the question on everyone’s mind is, “What will she dream up next?”

All information in the honoree’s bio is reflective of the time they won the award.