Bruce Harris, a 38-year publishing veteran who spent 27 of those years at Crown and the last 11 at Random House in an array of senior sales and marketing positions, is leaving to join Workman in the newly created position of publisher and COO.
Harris, whose most recent role at Random was as president of trade sales and marketing, told PW he was "tremendously excited" by what he described as "a rare opportunity." He added: "In a way it will be back to the roots of publishing, a chance to work in an arena where I can have more direct impact than I could in my present job." He and Workman president and CEO Peter Workman go back a long way together, he said, dating from roughly the time, about 30 years ago, when he was launching Harmony Books at Crown and Workman was starting up his company.
Workman said of his new No. 2: "Bruce has a vast amount of knowledge, experience and instinct about our business -- a rare combination of talent and abilities." At Workman, Harris will be responsible for sales, marketing, publicity, production and operations; its two imprints, Algonquin and Artisan, will also report to him. He will start there March 1.
Harris joined Crown Books in 1961, and rose to v-p and publishing director of Crown, Clarkson Potter and Harmony When Random acquired Crown in 1988, Harris became executive v-p and publishing director for the trade division, and three years later was named to head all of sales and marketing, including Knopf, Random, Crown, Fodor's and Vintage.
Don Weisberg, president of the Random sales group, said of Harris: "There is no more accomplished combination of book marketer and sales executive than Bruce. He has long been a gold standard for our industry as manager, motivator and mentor."
