HPE taps Rohan Cook as new General Manager, Channel for South Pacific

He will oversee the company's partner engagement and channel growth throughout Australia and New Zealand.

HPE has hired Rohan Cook as its new general manager channel for South Pacific as Julie Barbieri retires in that role after a successful 40 year career.

He begins his role immediately, where he will oversee the company's partner engagement and channel growth throughout Australia and New Zealand, leveraging his extensive global leadership and technology experience to further strengthen HPE's regional ecosystem.

Most recently, Cook served as VP APAC at ExaGrid, driving strategic expansion and transformational growth.

Cook told CRN Australia, the sheer diversity and pace of innovation in technology is “remarkable”.

“New entrants, established vendors, and evolving products are reshaping the landscape every day,” he said.

“The channel is uniquely positioned to bring clarity across this complexity, guiding customers from pilot projects to full-scale deployments.

“In Australia and New Zealand, the channel’s size and scale are impressive. This creates an exciting, dynamic environment where HPE and its partners can combine strengths to deliver exceptional outcomes for clients.”

Looking at the channel ecosystem in Australia, Cook said partners are navigating near-term priorities such as modernisation, security, application delivery, and data management.

“While also preparing for longer-term opportunities in AI, hybrid cloud, and data centre capacity. Meanwhile, customers expect greater value, consistent solutions, and a consultative approach,” he explained.

“The channel is a critical layer that delivers relationships, solutions, and invaluable 360-degree feedback, helping partners and their customers succeed with innovation, expertise and tenacity.”

Cook noted that the opportunity lies in leveraging this position as HPE’s frontline - capturing emerging projects and business initiatives where technology can deliver a significant competitive advantage.

“By working closely together, we can help clients grow and transform their businesses in meaningful ways,” he said.

For 2026, his immediate priority is to listen, learn, and understand the current landscape and strategic priorities.

“Equally important is fostering a culture that celebrates collaboration, innovation, and trust - because behind every great idea and every successful outcome are people,” he said.

“Our partners and alliances are absolutely critical to this journey, and so are the talented individuals within HPE and across the channel.”

Cook said this is a people business at its core.

“I hope to create an environment where people feel empowered and connected, where we can unlock creativity, drive transformation, and scale together—both as individuals and as a business,” he added.

Speaking to partners, he said they are central to HPE’s growth strategy in the South Pacific.

“My priority is to drive sustainable, partner-led growth across Australia and New Zealand. That starts with making it easier for partners to do business with HPE through clear programs, strong enablement and commercial alignment,” he explained.

“At the same time, we are focused on helping our ecosystem capture new opportunities across AI, cloud and data-driven workloads.

“By working closely with partners and building relationships based on trust and collaboration, we can deliver meaningful outcomes for customers and long-term success for the channel,” he ended.