Walter Weintz, who has held executive positions at a number of trade houses, has been named chief operating officer of Workman Publishing. Weintz succeeds Bruce Harris, who is stepping down after five years with Workman.

During his 27 years in publishing, Weintz was president of the Mondadori Publishing Company and, beginning in 1991, spent nine years at Random House, where he was publishing director for the adult trade division and later president of the Random House Information Group. In 2000 he moved to Simon & Schuster, where he has been v-p and deputy publisher.

Weintz will join Workman by the end of the month and report to company founder Peter Workman. Among his responsibilities will be oversight of the company's sales force.