Wookey, a veteran software executive also known for stints at Oracle and SAP, as executive vice president of social applications.

Salesforce.com Executive Vice President of Applications Alex Dayon "is taking some time off," company spokeswoman Jane Hynes said via email. "John will be taking a leadership role across many of our social apps including the Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Chatter and Rypple."

Wookey will be in charge of "most of" Salesforce.com's application development now, but not all, Hynes said. For example, the vendor's Radian6 division will remain under the leadership of Marcel LeBrun, according to Hynes.

Wookey's title will remain the same, Hynes said.

The IDG News Service