Executive moves: Sonatype and Novell upgrade their open-source execs

Sometimes social networks are the first to know. In this case, LinkedIn had a big batch of people-related news stories to offer, one of which - Mark de Visser's move to Sonatype to become its new CEO - is out in front of the press release.

Mark is still listed as Zend's chief marketing officer as of 7:16 AM Pacific Time, but LinkedIn knows the truth: de Visser has accepted the role of CEO at Sonatype, the company helping to drive the Apache Maven project. The formal announcement is expected shortly.

Other news that LinkedIn's update service told me today?

• Justin Steinman, erstwhile marketing director for Novell's open-source business, just got an upgrade to vice president, Solution and Product Marketing at Novell;
• Dion Cornett, who had been vice president of Sales at Red Hat, has finally updated his profile to reflect the job he's been doing at Red Hat for the past six months, vice president of Strategic Alliances;
• Joanne Rohde, formerly executive vice president of Worldwide Operations at Red Hat left the company last year, but has finally given an indication of what she's up to: politics (she's working on the North Carolina campaign to unseat Elizabeth Dole) and strategic advisory services. Come on, Joanne, the Doles have serious health issues - give them a break! (-: Seriously, I think very highly of Rohde - if you need some guidance through the economic turmoil, she'd be a great resource.

That's the news today. It will be interesting to see if we start to see churn as the economy slides.