2007 ended with a change at the top of the biggest open source vendor as Red Hat appointed Jim Whitehurst as its new CEO, replacing Matthew Szulik. 2008 has begun with further chief executive changes at Mozilla and Open-Xchange, while Novell is on the look out for a new general counsel.

Former Mozilla Corp COO, John Lilly is taking the helm of the open source browser project’s commercial side, replacing Mitchell Baker, who will continue in the role of chairman of both the Mozilla Corporation and the Mozilla Foundation.

Meanwhile open source collaboration software vendor Open-Xchange has its second new CEO in less than a year. Rafael Laguna has moved from the role of chairman to become president and CEO, replacing Gerald Labie, who only became CEO himself in April 2007.

Open-Xchange has also appointed former SUSE Linux CEO and Novell general manager, Richard Seibt, as its new chairman. Seibt was already on the company’s board and invested in the company on 2005 along with Robert Young (not the Red Hat one) and Lee Dayton. Former Nixdorf CEO Bernhard Woebker has also joined Open-Xchange’s board of directors.

Speaking of Novell, the Linux vendor is will now be on the look-out for a new general counsel following the news that Joseph LaSala has become general counsel and secretary at Discovery Communications. His departure is significant given Novell’s role in the ongoing SCO-related legal issues. No word from Novell yet on his departure or a replacement.