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Local HP Exec Gets the Call To Head Firm’s New Division

Vyomesh “V.J.” Joshi, Hewlett-Packard’s top executive in San Diego, has a whopper of a job ahead of him.

Company Chairwoman and Chief Executive Carly Fiorina has tapped Joshi to lead HP’s newly merged personal computer and printer divisions.

Joshi, 50, has spent three years as executive vice president of HP’s Imaging and Printing Group. That division makes a handsome profit. By contrast, the personal computer division has had trouble keeping up with rivals such as Dell.

The new unit will be called the Imaging and Personal Systems Group. The consolidation displaces the head of the PC division, Duane Zitzner. HP announced Zitzner’s retirement when it announced Joshi’s promotion Jan. 14.

The company said it is combining the divisions “to accelerate profitable growth, leverage the power of its portfolio and strengthen its market position.”

Hewlett-Packard had revenue of $79.9 billion in fiscal 2004, which ended Oct. 31. As of June, HP employed about 2,100 people in San Diego.

Joshi will keep his office in San Diego, but he’ll be on the road 60 percent of the time, said an HP spokesman.

Joshi had a freshly issued master’s degree in electrical engineering when HP hired him in 1980. In the mid-1980s, the Ohio State alum was a research-and-development engineer at HP’s Rancho Bernardo campus, designing inkjet printers using oddball materials such as mattress foam.

More recently, Joshi invested $1.2 billion in a breakneck campaign to design a new line of printers. The effort, called the Big Bang, was a success.

In December, Fiorina told analysts that HP had considered spinning off its printing business, not once but on three occasions, but backed off each time.

The consolidation “clearly contradicts any suggestions of a spinoff,” Joshi told Cnet News in an interview published Jan. 18.

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Work For WFII:

San Diego-based Wireless Facilities Inc. announced a $15 million contract to upgrade a wireless telecom network in upstate New York. The Jan. 18 announcement followed news of a contract extension for a Southern California carrier, worth $7 million. Wireless Facilities builds and maintains wireless networks and trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol WFII. Shares closed Jan. 18 at $8.87.

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CEYX Gains $4.5M:

San Diego-based CEYX Technologies Inc. announced Jan. 13 that it had raised $4.5 million in a preferred stock offering. Investors include Shepherd Ventures, Stone Canyon Venture Partners and Tech Coast Angels, plus some individuals who were not publicly named.

Founded in 2001, CEYX develops and markets firmware that controls lasers. Firmware is akin to the memory card inside a digital camera. The company’s technology can be applied to communication networks, liquid-crystal displays and light-emitting diodes. It has military applications as well.

The company has six full-time employees and four part-timers. Among other things, the cash infusion will help CEYX bring more people on full time, said Carol Fuller, company co-founder and chief executive. CEYX plans to hire 12 people, in sales and engineering, before the year is out. The company has offices in Rose Canyon, but with expansion plans it will probably have to move, Fuller said.


Send high-tech news to Brad Graves via fax at (858) 571-3628 or e-mail at bradg@sdbj.com. Call him at (858) 277-6359, Ext. 3115.

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