David Higgins - WatchGuard A/NZ CEO
After 44 years in the IT industry, WatchGuard Australia and New Zealand's regional director, David Higgins, is retiring, with his last day in his current role set for August 31.
Higgins told ARN that it was a personal decision to retire that was met with mixed emotions, but he was still ‘fit enough’ to get through a huge bucket list of items, with travel at the top of his agenda.
The move comes after decades working for some of the local market's biggest tech players, including Control Data Corporation in the UK and Australia, NEC, Epson, Tech Pacific, Sophos and Trend Micro.
Higgins started his career at Honeywell Time Sharing in 1973 - he joined WatchGuard in 2014.
Reflecting on the past 40 years in the IT industry, Higgins noted some big changes since he first came into the industry, when he first became involved in time sharing.
“We used to go a computer centre and buy time and storage, it doesn’t sound much different to cloud," he said. "The world has come full-circle. Looking back from where I started to now, it’s just been an incredible ride.”
Higgins credited the past 15 years he spent in the security industry as his biggest career highlight.
Watchguard will be searching for a replacement for the role the industry stalwart is vacating.
Higgins said he was leaving Watchguard on a high, coming off the biggest quarter in its history in Australia, experiencing double digit growth.
“We’ve never been stronger and we’ve got a great management team in the US driving the company,” he said.
