The Philadelphia Business Journal has named Gina Rubel, President and CEO of Bucks County public relations agency Furia Rubel Communications, a 2008 Woman of Distinction. The Business Journal’s Women of Distinction are selected as the top female leaders in their respective fields based on professional achievement, awards, milestones and community involvement. The Business Journal has described this year’s award recipients as “25 of the region’s most dynamic women who are making headlines in their professional field and in their community.”
More than 700 business leaders will be on hand for the Women of Distinction awards reception on December 1 at the Sheraton City Center in Philadelphia. The award winners will also be profiled in a special section of the Business Journal’s November 28 issue.
Rubel, a licensed attorney, launched Furia Rubel in 2002. The agency provides strategic planning and public relations services to law firms, pharmaceutical companies, educational institutions, business-to-business companies and non-profits internationally. Local representative clients include GlaxoSmithKline, Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter Tanner Weinstock & Dodig, Benjamin Ross Group, Focus Express Mail Pharmacy, and the National Kidney Foundation serving the Delaware Valley to name a few.
A sought-after speaker and author, Rubel was recently honored as one of the Best 50 Women in Business by Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and the Department of Community and Economic Development. Honorees were selected based on their dedication to business growth, professional and personal accomplishments, community involvement and advocacy for women in business. Rubel also saw her first book, Everyday Public Relations for Lawyers: a no nonsense strategic PR guide, published last year.
Keenly aware of the needs of those less fortunate, Rubel ensures that her agency maintains three pro-bono nonprofit accounts each year. Among these are Deep Run Mennonite Church East, MAMA Project, Inc., and Elephant’s Eye Bucks County Artists Studio Tour. Furia Rubel staff members are also encouraged to participate in industry associations, professional development programs and mentoring.
Rubel serves as a mentor to young businesswomen, is a member of the Board of Directors of the Drexel University Alumni Association (http://www.drexel.edu/ia/alumrel/) where she chairs the Communications Committee (www.womensbusinessforum.org), is the chancellor of The Justinian Society of Italian-American Lawyers of Philadelphia (www.justinian.org), serves as the Bar-News Media Committee Chair for the Philadelphia Bar Association (www.philadelphiabar.org), and served on the 2008 Crystal Ball Committee for the Hepatitis B Foundation (www.hepb.org). She is also a regular contributor to The Legal Intelligencer Media and Law Blog (http://wordpress.com/tag/gina-f-rubel/) and maintains The PR Lawyer (et al.) blog (www.theprlawyer.com).
A South Philadelphia native, Rubel is a graduate of Drexel University and Widener University School of Law. She will also begin as an adjunct professor in the Delaware Valley College MBA program in January 2009 teaching contemporary business issues.
Rubel resides in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, with her husband, Scott, their two children and three dogs on a 250 year-old farm.