How to run two concurrent instances of Skype on Lion.

I wanted to run two instances of skype on my desktop for two separate skype accounts (home and work). This is how I did it – it works but is a bit cumbersome. Once I automate this I’ll post a simpler solution.

Login to your machine as normal and start Skype with your usual account (this is my personal account).
Create a new standard login account on the machine in question using Systems Preferences. (You only do this the first time)
In your normal login environment open a Terminal (from Applications/Utilities).
In this Terminal first switch user to the newly created account using “su”. Then execute the Skype.app as follows:

bash-3.2:~ YourUsualAcoount$ su NewAccountName
Password:<enter password for newly create account)
bash-3.2$ /Applications/Skype.app/Contents/MacOS/Skype &
[1] 703
bash-3.2$

You might see some messages in the Terminal which can be ignored.
You might see the following window – just click cancel.

You can now login as normal to skype window presented to you with the other skype account (in my case the work account).

Profile cancel