In a move that many in the Silicon Valley chattering classes were certainly wondering about, former Yahoo exec Jeff Weiner has been named CEO of LinkedIn, the largest social network focused on professionals.

Weiner (pictured here), 39, who has been the president of the Mountain View, Calif.-based company since late last year, will also join the board of directors.

Current CEO, Chairman and founder Reid Hoffman–whose second title will be slightly changed to executive chairman and who will continue to work on a daily basis at LinkedIn–said the move was not part of the preparations for an initial public offering but because Weiner had already been handling the duties of CEO for some time.

“Jeff has really had our team reporting to him and has been doing a lot of what a CEO does for months now,” said Hoffman. “So, we wanted to project that to the world what was already projected internally.”

Before coming to LinkedIn, Weiner ran the Network division of Yahoo (YHOO), putting him in charge of most of its consumer offerings.

He left the Internet giant a year ago and did a brief stint as an executive-in-residence at two Silicon Valley venture firms–Accel Partners and Greylock Partners–before joining Linked in December.

Weiner listed a number of priorities moving forward, including scaling the network, increasing the user base and engagement, improving user experience and product ease, juicing up search, further expanding internationally and strengthening the platform and third-party developer relationships.

Phew, but he left out improving the food in the cafeteria!

“We have done a lot over the last six months to really grow this professional network,” said Weiner, who noted that the company had beaten its internal projections. “And we are positioned well to reach our full potential.”

For now, to both Weiner and Hoffman, that means growth and further girding the bottom line.

LinkedIn, which said it has 42 million members world-wide, has a more diversified business model than other social-networking sites, with “three lines of revenue, including premium subscriptions, corporate solutions and advertising.”

Hoffman said the company was profitable in 2008 and is expected to be profitable in 2009, although he declined to provide either revenue or profit figures.

One striking figure, of course, is the more than $100 million in funding LinkedIn has gotten since it was founded, which had given it a massive valuation of over $1 billion.

That’s why many have been watching for either an IPO or a sale of LinkedIn. Many possible acquirers have been bandied about in the past, including News Corp. (NWS), which owns Dow Jones, owner of this site.

But Hoffman discounted either path for now.

“We are entirely focused on building the company and not on the run-up you make for a public offering,” he said.

Added Weiner: “We are working on how you build a strong company for the long term.”

Here’s the official press release on the news:

LinkedIn Names Jeff Weiner Chief Executive Officer

Co-founder Reid Hoffman continues as Executive Chairman

Mountain View, CA–June 24, 2009–LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network, today announced that Jeff Weiner has been named LinkedIn’s chief executive officer and appointed to the board of directors. Reid Hoffman will remain focused on LinkedIn in his day-to-day role as founder and executive chairman.

Since joining LinkedIn as interim president in January 2009, Weiner has overseen all operations and played a defining role in developing and executing the company’s strategy to address the accelerating demand for LinkedIn’s products and services on a global basis. “Working closely with Reid and the team over the past six months exceeded all of my expectations coming into the company,” said Weiner. “I couldn’t be more excited about our progress to date, and the opportunity ahead of us.”

“LinkedIn was founded to harness the power of the internet to create a tool that would help individuals become more effective and successful professionals,” said Reid Hoffman, co-founder and executive chairman, LinkedIn. “Over the past six months, Jeff has done an exceptional job leading the company and I look forward to continuing the work that we have begun together.”

In the past year, LinkedIn has achieved records across virtually all key operating and financial metrics, most recently exceeding 42 million global members. LinkedIn has an established business model with three lines of revenue, including premium subscriptions, corporate solutions and advertising. The company operated profitably in 2008 and is expected to be profitable in 2009. LinkedIn has secured more than $100 million in funding from some of the world’s premiere investors.

Weiner brings more than 14 years of consumer web experience to the position. Prior to joining LinkedIn as interim president, Weiner was executive in residence at Accel Partners and Greylock Partners. He had previously held key leadership roles at Yahoo!, most recently serving as executive vice president of Yahoo!’s Network Division with responsibility for Yahoo!’s consumer web product portfolio, including Yahoo!’s Front Page, Mail, Search and Media products. In addition to LinkedIn, Weiner serves on the boards of DonorsChoose.org and Malaria No More. For more information, please see Jeff Weiner’s LinkedIn profile at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffweiner08.

Even in the midst of a tough investing environment, Silicon Valley legend and serial entrepreneur Marc Andreessen (pictured here) and his longtime investing partner, Ben Horowitz, have completed the raising of a new venture fund, according to numerous sources close to the situation, and it is oversubscribed.

Sources said the fund–which was nicknamed “Project A” but is actually called Andreessen Horowitz–will be $300 million. It is $50 million over the $250 million he and Horowitz had planned.

Several major institutional investors–from universities, for example–have invested large chunks of up to $20 million or more, while a spate of Silicon Valley luminaries has put in amounts of $1 million or less.

The quick completion of the fund raising, in the midst of a national econalypse, is a good sign perhaps for the forward-leaning culture of tech, which has seen some pullback by VCs over the last six months.

Andreessen, who co-founded Netscape–the iconic browser company that was key to introducing the modern Internet to consumers–and a lot of other start-ups, announced on the “Charlie Rose” television show in February that he was creating the new fund.

“For the first time in my life, I am crossing over into the dark side,” said Andreessen at the time (see the video below).

Although he gave few specific details about the fund in that interview, Andreessen essentially said he was simply putting a structure around his own active angel investing, which has included start-ups like Twitter, Facebook, Digg, LinkedIn and many more.

Andreessen, who is on the board of Facebook and an adviser to Twitter, has turned into one the the digital sector’s most influential mandarins for innovative start-ups.

His new effort will focus on early-stage investments, he said in the interview with Rose, noting that “our claim to fame is, we’ve actually, you know, by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, we’ve done it, we’ve been on that side of the table for a long time; we know what it’s like.”

Andreessen said then that he and Horowitz had made 36 investments over the last three years of up to $200,000, but that his new firm will make up to $1 million bets on companies they decide to invest in.

Plus, he said then he would be patient: “Like with our new fund, if we fund a company today, we’re thinking about a return in seven to 10 years, so we can go through three or four or even five years of economic downturn, as long as, at some point, we come out the other end.”

Here is the video of Andreessen on the Rose show (he starts to talk about the new fund in the interview at around 18:33 minutes, again at 46:55 minutes and at the very end):

Exactly how is the introduction of vanity URLs on Facebook going to go?

At 9:01 p.m. PDT on Friday, the giant Silicon Valley-based social-networking site will allow its 200 million members to log in and claim a friendlier username for part of their URLs instead of the long string of gibberish that is now there.

That a lot of sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and others already allow you to do this is not really the point.

But, because it is about people’s names and because it is certain to be chaotic in its execution, I think we can pretty much slap the moniker “URLgate” on this one and just call it a night.

Nonetheless, in an email tonight inviting media to an open house to see its new HQ building in Palo Alto, Calif., the PR team at Facebook–which often gets into hot water over various public snafus that arise at the young company with regularity–is mightily trying to make nice with journalists to perhaps head off any bloggish bellyaching.

They wrote: “We wanted to let you know that we decided to reserve usernames for the key journalists and outlets we work with. Look out for an email from someone on the communications team with more details.”

Firestorm of disgruntlement from those who did not make the list sure to follow? Of course!

In any case, my top preferences?

Http://facebook.com/internalfacebookmemostoboomtownstat

Http://facebook.com/findmeontwitter@karaswisher

And, if you want to read a very funny take on the gathering Facebook username–yes, FU!–storm, read Anil Dash’s great spoof post on the issue.

My favorite fake prediction Dash makes is one that you just know is going to come true:

“In response to the growing buzz on Techmeme about ‘The Facebook Debacle,’ [Facebook CEO and founder] Mark Zuckerberg posts on Facebook’s blog with the news that the company has created the Facebook Username Dispute Resolution Community.”

[Photo of the vanity license plate above, courtesy of COOLPL8Z.com.]

More musical chairs at Yahoo, which BoomTown predicted recently, as top execs at the company move in and out of jobs, and new ones from the outside move in.

Perhaps the most important change to occur is the replacement this week of SVP Scott Dietzen–who has been in charge of all communications and communities products at Yahoo (YHOO)–by former Adobe Systems (ADBE) exec Bryan Lamkin, several sources said.

Lamkin will become SVP of Applications Products.

According to his profile on LinkedIn, Lamkin (pictured here) was most recently SVP of Creative Solutions, Adobe’s largest business unit, where the software exec “led product strategy, marketing and product development for Adobe’s flagship software applications, including Photoshop, the Creative Suite, Dreamweaver, Flash and Illustrator.”

Lamkin, who was at Adobe for 14 years, has more recently been an executive-in-residence at two venture firms, New Enterprise Associates and Sutter Hill Ventures.

He will take over for Dietzen, who came to Yahoo in 2007 after its $350 million Zimbra open-source email acquisition

Dietzen–whom sources said is more entrepreneurial than managerial and did not want to lead such a big organization at the Internet giant–will become VP of strategy in the move. Many said they expect he will eventually leave Yahoo to try his hand at another start-up.

His colleague, Zimbra founder and CEO Satish Dharmaraj, left Yahoo earlier this year to join Redpoint Ventures as a VC.

In his job since, Dietzen has been busy fixing Yahoo’s mail and calendar offerings. (See my video interview with him below from last fall.)

But that’s not all.

Also afoot is a restructuring of Yahoo’s North American sales unit, with the unexpected promotion of Mitch Spolan, who was a regional sales exec and will now be in charge of all North American field sales.

The paidContent Web site reported the sales changes first, which have been rumored around Yahoo recently.

Spolan jumped over two more senior execs, sources said, who run sales operations for the East and West coasts. One of those execs, Beth Lawrence, will now run Yahoo’s relations with agencies. Both report to U.S. sales SVP Joanne Bradford.

Over the last 18 months, Yahoo has seen a bleeding of its advertising staff to a wide range of Silicon Valley Web companies, including, most recently, Yahoo’s VP of Sales Operations Dan Foehner to social-networking site Facebook.

Lastly, one of Yahoo’s most senior communications execs, Brad Williams, was let go as part of its recent round of layoffs. He had been running PR–admirably and with good cheer, I might add, despite all the bad news–since its head, Jill Nash, departed earlier this year.

Williams’s departure was first reported by The Wall Street Journal tonight. He came to Yahoo in early 2008 from eBay (EBAY).

New marketing head Elisa Steele, who was hired by CEO Carol Bartz, had recently hired a headhunting firm to find a new PR chief, sources said, and Williams was not considered as a candidate for the job.

UPDATE: Yahoo confirmed my report above.

A spokesman sent me the following info about Lamkin’s appointment:

Bryan Lamkin, formerly of Adobe, is joining Yahoo! as senior vice president of Applications Products, reporting directly to Ari Balogh. As a reminder, the Applications Products group consists of several key global products for Yahoo!, including Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, Flickr, Yahoo! Answers, Yahoo! Groups and Zimbra.

Bryan brings a wealth of experience on the consumer technology front and his background ties in nicely with Yahoo!’s ongoing focus to deliver great consumer experiences across the globe.

Bryan takes over for Scott Dietzen, who was named the interim head of Application Products following the reorg back in February. Scott will continue on at Yahoo!, and will work across Yahoo!’s Applications Products in a new product strategy role.

Bio

Bryan Lamkin

Senior Vice President, Applications Product, Yahoo!

Bryan Lamkin joins Yahoo! as the senior vice president of Applications Products. In this role, he will oversee the global strategy, development and performance for key products within the Yahoo! portfolio, including Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, Flickr, Yahoo! Answers, Yahoo! Groups and Zimbra.

Lamkin most recently served as senior vice president and general manager of Creative Solutions, Adobe’s largest business unit. Lamkin led product strategy, marketing and research and development for Adobe’s flagship software applications, including the Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, the Creative Suite, Dreamweaver, Flash and Illustrator.

In his 14 years at Adobe Systems, Lamkin held key management positions including Senior Vice President and General Manager, Digital Imaging and Video and Vice President of Marketing, Professional Publishing Solutions. Lamkin was responsible for product development and marketing as well as the acquisition and product integration strategies that established Adobe’s overwhelming leadership in digital imaging and video and web publishing. Before joining Adobe Systems, Lamkin served in key product marketing and international product development roles at Software Publishing Corporation and holds both a BA and MBA from the University of California at Berkeley.

And here is Dietzen in my video interview:

Another Goog-Bye.

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (pictured here), president of Google’s Asia-Pacific and Latin American operations, is leaving the search giant and joining Silicon Valley venture firm Accel Partners as a CEO-in-residence.

Singh Cassidy, 39, is one of Google’s more visible execs and also one of its highest-ranking women leaders. She has been at Google (GOOG) since 2003.

Previous to that, she was at Yodlee, an online banking start-up, which was backed by Accel–along with stints at Amazon (AMZN) and OpenTV (OPTV).

She is also the second top Google exec to depart the company recently. Tim Armstrong, president of the Americas and a top advertising SVP, left the company a month ago to become CEO and chairman of Time Warner (TWX) online unit AOL.

While any executive exodus from Google is much noticed, especially in such close proximity, the moves by both are probably not too surprising, given that the powerful company–as it matures–has limited avenues for its typically ambitious managers.

It was well known that Armstrong had long wanted to have the top job at a company and that Singh Cassidy is a longtime entrepreneur with higher goals.

Singh Cassidy said as much in an interview with BoomTown last night.

“I was at the end of my streak [at Google] and ready to take the next step and run or grow my own company,” she said. “It is key for me to be stepping out and spreading my wings now.”

Where Singh Cassidy will fly to next is not determined yet, she said, but it will be in the consumer Internet space, she said, although it could be at a start-up or a more established company.

“I think what I was known for at Google was scaling for growth opportunities and I am interested in finding a company with a lot of momentum and need for scale,” said Singh Cassidy.

(Helloooo, Twitter?!? Here’s a way to get a little bit of Googley management without, you know, actually selling out to Google.)

Google CEO and Chairman Eric Schmidt said in a statement about Singh Cassidy’s departure:

“We are deeply grateful to Sukhinder for all that she has done for Google since she joined in 2003. She’s an ambitious, entrepreneurial executive who has a proven track record of building successful operations–most notably, developing Google’s advertising sales teams across Asia Pacific and Latin America. We wish her only the best as she pursues her passion to lead and run her own company.”

A place like Accel is often the first stop for consumer tech players like Singh Cassidy before heading out to another leadership job in the industry. It has backed companies like Facebook, Glam Media and many others.

Yahoo (YHOO) EVP Jeff Weiner, for example, was an executive-in-residence at both Accel Partners and Greylock Partners when he left the Internet giant last year before taking a job in December as president at business networking start-up LinkedIn, which is a Greylock investment.

Interestingly, the CEO-in-residence title is a unique one at Accel, which typically gives high-level exiting managers like Singh Cassidy that EIR title.

But that’s what Singh Cassidy is clearly aiming for. She said she was still sad to be departing Google, even as she was looking forward to the next chapter of her career.

“I am leaving a tremendous platform…but Google or any big company does not present the opportunities to pursue management prowess that you can only get as a CEO,” said Singh Cassidy. “I hope the next thing I jump into will have that and also be long and enduring.”

Here’s the entire Accel press release on Singh Cassidy:

Accel Partners Adds Google Executive Sukhinder Singh Cassidy as CEO-in-Residence

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy Brings Growth and Early Stage Experience to the Global Firm

PALO ALTO, CA, April 8, 2009–Accel Partners, a leading global venture and growth equity firm funding companies from inception through the growth stage, today announced the addition of Sukhinder Singh Cassidy as CEO-in-Residence. Ms. Singh Cassidy joins Accel from Google where she served most recently as President for Asia-Pacific (APAC) & Latin American Operations. In this role, she was responsible for all of Google’s commercial operations in both regions, and built the company’s presence from inception to its current scale serving users, advertisers and partners across 40 domains and 103 different countries throughout APAC and Latin America.

“Having already worked with the Accel team as a Google executive and an entrepreneur, I know first-hand Accel’s approach to engaging and supporting their companies,” said Ms. Singh Cassidy, Accel Partners. “Accel’s portfolio of category-transforming digital media companies such as AdMob, Etsy, Facebook, Glam Media, Kayak, and others creates a rich set of opportunities for marketplace dialog and new category creation.”

Ms. Singh Cassidy has a long-standing relationship with Accel having co-founded Accel-backed Yodlee, a leader in the internet financial application and online banking space. As CEO-In-Residence, Ms. Singh Cassidy will be evaluating new venture and growth equity opportunities in partnership with Accel in addition to working with companies in Accel’s digital media and advertising portfolio. “Sukhinder’s reputation as an entrepreneurial leader in both startups and Google are well known in the industry,” said Jim Breyer, Partner, Accel Partners. “We’re very pleased to have Sukhinder join the Accel team.”

“Sukhinder is the rare executive who has excelled both at founding internet companies as well as running a multi-billion dollar business within Google,” said Theresia Gouw Ranzetta, Partner, Accel Partners. “Her experience will be a real asset for both Accel’s early stage and growth franchise.”

“Sukhinder is a world-class Internet executive,” said Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and former Google colleague of Ms. Singh Cassidy. “It will be great to be working together again as part of the Accel family.”

Prior to running Asia Pacific and Latin America, Ms. Singh Cassidy joined Google in 2003 as the first General Manager for Google Local & Maps, helping to launch these innovative new services, then expanding her responsibilities to lead the company’s strategic partnerships for Google Books, Scholar, and Video. From 1999-2003, Ms. Singh Cassidy was Co-founder and Senior Vice President of Business Development for Yodlee.com Inc., a leading solutions provider to the global financial services industry. Ms Singh Cassidy started her Internet career in strategy and business development, working for Amazon.com and interactive TV provider OpenTV. For her work in the Internet industry, Ms. Singh Cassidy has been profiled in numerous publications globally, including Fortune, Business Week, Canada Post, India Today, and the book, Innovation Nation, profiling Canada’s most innovative business leaders.

In addition to Accel’s continued investments in early-stage startups from the Accel X early stage fund, Accel announced its $480 million growth fund in December of 2008. This fund will focus on growth equity opportunities across a broad range of sectors, including: information technology, internet, digital media, mobile, networking, software, and services. As with Accel’s early-stage efforts, Accel Growth Fund will play an active role in helping entrepreneurs and management teams build category-defining, global businesses.

About Accel Partners

Founded in 1983, Accel Partners has a long history of excellence and innovation in the global venture and growth equity business. It is dedicated to partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs and management teams to build world-class companies, from inception through growth. Accel today invests globally using dedicated teams and market-specific strategies for local geographies, with offices in Palo Alto, California; London, UK; and Bangalore, India; as well as in China via the IDG-Accel Partnership.

With over $6 billion under management, Accel has helped entrepreneurs build over 300 successful category-defining companies including: Actuate, Alfresco, AMCC, Arrowpoint, Baidu, BBN, Brightcove, ComScore, Etsy, Facebook, Focus Media, Foundry Networks, Gameforge, Glam Media, Imperva, Infinera, Interwoven, JBoss, Kayak, Macromedia, metroPCS, Mu Sigma, Polycom/PictureTel, Portal Software, QlikTech, Rapt, Real Networks, Redback Networks, Riverbed, Sohu.com, UUNet, Veritas, Walmart.com, Webroot, XenSource, and Zimbra. For more information, visit the Accel Partners web site at www.accel.com.

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

At least he’s not going to Microsoft (MSFT)!

But nonetheless, sources said another major Yahoo tech exec and a longtime company veteran, Venkat Panchapakesan (pictured here), EVP of the Audience Technology Group, is readying his departure from the company.

This time, it’s to return to India, where he has long told colleagues he wanted to return.

Sources said Panchapakesan will not be leaving until the end of the summer, but “his departure is well along the road.”

At Yahoo (YHOO), Panchapakesan has most recently been responsible for the company’s overall product technology and platform strategy, such as its open efforts.

He’s an old-timer at Yahoo, having arrived in 1998, and has been involved in the development and execution of technologies for lots of Yahoo products, such as Mail, Flickr, Answers, Groups, Messenger and its content properties.

But recent reorganization of the tech unit, along with Panchapakesan’s interest in working in India, hurried along his leaving.

According to his profile on LinkedIn, Panchapakesan moved to Bangalore, India, to become the CEO of the Yahoo India R&D in 2003, returning in 2006.

Previous to Yahoo, he worked at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ).