Devan has been executive director of Canada's Pacific Opera Victoria since 1997. He has also worked for Opera Ontario and Canadian Opera Company, as well as for Toronto's Harbourfront Centre.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the managing-director position is a new one, and includes some of the responsibilities of the company's former executive director, John P. Mulroney, who died last fall.
The company is dealing with some financial difficulties, with falling ticket sales and a deficit of $400,000.
Robert B. Driver, the company's general and artistic director, told the Inquirer that Devan was not hired with the view of making him the company's next director, although, he said, "his end goal is to be head of a company, and he needs five to seven years at a first-level company before he's ready. This is not a succession appointment, which is not to say that it might not end up being that."