TrustedOpinion.com has named Java pioneer Gene Leybzon as Chief Technology Officer to support the company’s growth and technology development. Since its official launch in February 2007, TrustedOpinion.com has acquired over 350,000 members who benefit from recommendations based on the opinions of those in their social network.

In his new role at TrustedOpinion.com, Leybzon will take a hands-on approach to drive the company’s technology strategy. He is an early Java pioneer, a co-author of the popular book “Java Unleashed,” and possesses a long history in the Silicon Valley, including senior engineering roles at HP, Xerox, Siebel (now Oracle), and Bayer. Leybzon is also a long-time participant in a variety of local industry and social events, attending tech meetups and conferences around the Bay Area.

“I look forward to working with the team at TrustedOpinion.com and applying my background and experience to help Trusted Opinion grow in the social networking niche” said Leybzon. “The site is already growing at more than 3,000 users a day and I hope to facilitate its future growth. It’ll be an exciting challenge to drive the technical strategy to support this kind of exponential growth”

As part of TrustedOpinion.com’s executive team, Gene Leybzon will lead distributed software engineering team to build highly scalable and functionally rich social recommendation application. He possesses a strong background in software architecture and experience in building and managing global engineering teams.

“We are delighted to have someone with Gene’s depth, experience and background joining our team,” said Todd Greene, COO of TrustedOpinon.com “We’re looking forward to his contribution to the growth and development of the TrustedOpinion.com community.”