Business networking site LinkedIn made Wednesday a significant change of CEOs: company co-founder Reid Hoffman will take the reins from Dan Nye, who will be packing his bags. According to the New York Times, this separation was made on amicable terms, as the company get s ready for a new phase in its development.

Still, Nye’s departure is a bit of a surprise, because LinkedIn did quite well under his leadership, actually quadrupling its user pool to almost 33 million users. And yet it’s also true that many of them are simply content with creating a profile on the site and then barely using it. MySpace or Facebook are much more popular choices when it comes to regular use of one’s web identity and that’s precisely what LinkedIn needs to work on.

The first technical steps in this direction have already been made: not too long ago, the site became open to third-party applications from Google, Amazon and companies of their ilk. This CEO swapping move is probably intended as a catalyst for a more radical and decisive change in the site’s mien. The recession effect is also putting some pressure on LinkedIn to make its web personality more visible and attractive.

Hoffman’s return on the executive scene is not the only shift in LinkedIn high-level personnel. The interim position of president is to be taken by Jeff Weiner, who used to be executive vice president at Yahoo. He had already been acting as informal adviser for LinkedIn, assuming the role of “executive in residence” at venture capital firms Accel Partners and Greylock Partners. Also, Dipchand “Deep” Nishar, former executive at Google, will be vice president of products.