WAGO has announced the appointment of Deepan Patel as its automation sales and data centre industry manager for the UK and Ireland.
Patel takes up the role as WAGO accelerates its move into the data centre sector, one of the fastest growing markets for industrial automation and one where the company sees significant headroom for its controls, connectivity and monitoring technologies.
He joins from Phoenix Contact, where he spent close to eight years as industry manager for infrastructure and campaign manager for data centres. During that period, he helped build the company's international data centre market strategy, working across the UK, mainland Europe and the United States, and delivered a multi-million pound pipeline in his final year. Earlier in his career he worked on OPC UA architecture for a European software firm, supporting projects for organisations including EDF and Crossrail, and spent several years as an automation specialist with a Siemens solution partner. That combination gives him a broad view of the sector, spanning controls engineering, IT systems architecture and commercial strategy.
In his new role, Patel will lead WAGO's commercial and industry engagement across the data centre market. His immediate priorities are to build recognition for WAGO's automation portfolio among consultants, specifiers and operators, to shape the product roadmap for the next decade of data centre growth, and to develop the positioning needed to take that portfolio to market.
“The data centre market is moving faster than almost any other sector we operate in, and the operators and consultants building these facilities need automation partners who understand both the electrical infrastructure and the IT systems sitting on top of it,” said Darren Hodson, managing director, WAGO UK and Ireland. “Deepan has spent his career working across that divide and has already helped build a data centre business from a standing start once before. Bringing him into the team is a clear statement of our ambition in this market.”