UNITED KINGDOM, July 27, 2026 — WAGO, the global specialist in electrical interconnection and automation technology, has today announced the appointment of Deepan Patel as its Automation Sales and Data Center Industry manager for the UK and Ireland.
Patel takes up the role as WAGO accelerates its move into the data center 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 Centers. During that period, he helped build the company's international data center 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 center 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 center growth, and to develop the positioning needed to take that portfolio to market.
That portfolio sits across low voltage controls, monitoring and connectivity, where WAGO's modular approach to power and data connections is designed to speed up installation and reconfiguration as facilities scale. Support for open protocols also gives operators a route to bring building systems, electrical infrastructure and IT monitoring into a single view, an increasingly pressing requirement as densities rise and cooling architectures change.
“The data center 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 center business from a standing start once before. Bringing him into the team is a clear statement of our ambition in this market.”
“WAGO has a portfolio the data centrer sector genuinely needs, particularly around modular connectivity, monitoring and open automation protocols, and my job is to make sure the market knows it,” said Deepan Patel, Automation Sales and Data Center Industry manager, WAGO UK and Ireland. “The IT and OT gap remains one of the biggest unsolved problems in this industry. As densities rise and cooling architectures change, the operators who can see and control everything in their facility through a single open system will have a real advantage. That is the conversation I want to be having with consultants, specifiers and operators over the next twelve months.”
Deepan Patel takes up his role with immediate effect.
About WAGO
WAGO designs and manufactures the electrical connection, interface and automation technology that keeps critical systems running. Its products sit inside rail networks, power grids, data center, manufacturing lines and the buildings we work and live in. They are trusted by the electricians, electrical contractors, machine builders, panel builders and engineers who specify them when reliability is not negotiable. Founded in Germany in 1951 and still family owned, WAGO operates across more than 80 countries and employs around 9,000 people worldwide.
