Pat Devlin to leave Aruba after five years

HPE Aruba Networking senior director of South Pacific Pat Devlin will leave the company in mid-June after five years in the role.

In a LinkedIn post on his departure, Devlin noted that in mid-2019, Steve Wood approached him about an opportunity with HPE Aruba Networking. At the time, he “had been thinking about my next move, and this seemed like an exciting change.”

“I think my first real exposure to Aruba was as a competitor in my Ruckus days,” he said. “Then, at HPE, I met a few Aruba team members, most notably Mark Thornton, who had a huge personality and presence in Aruba and was a big part of my move.”

According to Devlin, HPE’s people and culture were “the best” he had ever worked with.

“I have so many fond memories that it’s difficult to pick favourites. We went through COVID together from start to finish,” Devlin said. “We endured the horror of the supply chain crisis, but we also posted record growth and had the highest of highs.”

In a statement from HPE, Devlin decided to leave the HPE Aruba Networking business to “pursue the next chapter in his career”.

“We thank Pat for his outstanding contributions in running the local business and wish him all the very best with his next adventure,” HPE said.

The company also stated that Andrew Fox, who has been the New Zealand country manager of Aruba since August 2016, will immediately assume the role of interim head of HPE Aruba Networking South Pacific.

Devlin added he was “very lucky to have a great leader ready and willing to take over”.

“Andrew Fox has waited patiently for me to move and I can’t think of a better person to lead this team,” he said.

Before working at Aruba, Fox also previously worked at IT consultancy ViFX and IBM, among other companies.