WellStar promotes two executives

MARIETTA — WellStar Health System has promoted executives Bruce Dean and Tony Trupiano.

Dean will add vice president of real estate to his current title of deputy general counsel for WellStar Health System. He has more than 30 years of real estate experience and has worked closely with WellStar’s real estate acquisitions since joining the system in 2007.

Before joining WellStar, Dean was a shareholder at the law firm Brock Clay in Marietta, where he served as WellStar’s local counsel. He has also served as senior real estate counsel for Norfolk Southern Railway. He earned bachelor’s, master’s and law degrees from the University of Georgia and served as a captain in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps in Germany. Dean lives in east Cobb with his wife, Beth.

Tony Trupiano, who joined WellStar in 2009, has been promoted to senior vice president of supply chain and will now be responsible for all construction activities within WellStar, in addition to his current responsibilities overseeing the system’s supply-chain activities.

Before joining WellStar, Trupiano served for more than 13 years in a similar role with SSM Health Care-St. Louis, and for 14 years in other health care supply-chain leadership roles. He has undergraduate and master’s degrees in business administration from the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Trupiano has been active in a number of community organizations and boards, including North Cobb Rotary, and is involved in building a medical clinic in Haiti. He and his wife, Gayle, have four grown children.

Acworth woman to lead federal agency

ACWORTH — The U.S. Senate has confirmed Dot Harris of Acworth will direct the Office of Minority Economic Impact.

President Barack Obama appointed Harris to the job last fall.

Harris is president and CEO of Jabo Industries, LLC, a minority female-owned management consulting firm concentrated primarily in the energy, information technology and health care industries. She was previously an executive at General Electric Co. Harris earned a master’s degree in technology management from Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta.

Her business is based in Atlanta.

* Manufacturing activity in Georgia remained flat in March, according to the Econometric Center at Kennesaw State University’s Michael J. Coles College of Business. This marks two consecutive PMI readings above 60, indicating that manufacturing is growing faster than it was during the fourth quarter of 2011. Georgia’s Purchasing Managers Index — a reading of economic activity in the state’s manufacturing sector — slipped by just 0.3 of a point in March, mostly because of a drop in finished inventory. The average PMI for the fourth quarter was 47.7, compared to 58 for the quarter that just closed.

A PMI reading above 50 indicates that manufacturing activity is expanding; a reading below 50 indicates it is contracting.