As y’all know, the CEO of HP, Carly Fiorina, was fired yesterday for architecting a failed merger with Compaq. If the head of HP’s flagship division were elevated in her place, Vyomesh Joshi would become the first desi CEO of a company listed in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (as far as I know).

The Dow Jones includes just 30 blue-chip stocks such as Procter & Gamble, Boeing and Microsoft. The mustachioed, light-eyed Joshi has long been a tireless advocate for HP printers.

[The board] did not rule out promoting someone from within the company… the most likely candidate would be Vyomesh (“VJ”) Joshi. He had been the widely respected head of HP’s printing and imaging division and was recently put in charge of a new unit that combines the printing and PC businesses… one analyst asked Wayman whether the company was concerned about Joshi leaving if he were not named the new CEO… Milunovich added though that it would be important for HP to hold on to Joshi. [CNN]

In three years in charge of the printer unit, which delivers 73 per cent of the company’s operating profits, he boosted profit margins from about 10 per cent to almost 17 per cent at the end of last year. HP could ill afford to lose Mr Joshi, but he may be deemed unsuitable for the top job because he has no experience in corporate computing. [Financial Times]

HP, with $80B in revenues, would actually be the perfect company for this to happen to first because it’s not the hippest company in the world. It’s slightly dowdy, carrying around a pocket protector, an RPN calculator and a combover, but its products tend to be intelligent and dependable. Just like a desi uncle.