Charbonneau is a hospital executive with over 40 years of experience as the CEO/COO of both urban teaching and rural hospitals. During more than half of his career, he worked in nationally recognized health reform initiatives in Rochester, NY. In the early part of his career, Charbonneau was one of the founding hospital CEOs who participated in the Hospital Experimental Payment program (HEP) from 1980-1990. HEP was a payer, global budgeting experiment that eliminated fee-service to hospitals. The General Accounting Office credited HEP with producing health insurance premiums that were 33% less than the national average. In the later part of his career, Charbonneau became the founding CEO of the Rochester Health Commission, a business led health reform organization in Rochester, New York. In 2003, the RAND Corporation acknowledged the Commission's work in a report sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In 2004, the Institute of Medicine invited the Rochester Health Commission to participate in the First Annual Crossing the Quality Chasm Summit. Charbonneau presented at the Quality Chasm Summit's Community Organization breakout sessions and served on the Summit's Reactor Panel. Charbonneau retired to Rhode Island. In 2014, he was appointed Executive Director of the Rhode Island Business Group on Health (RIBGH).