The father of DevOps is generally attributed to Patrick Debois. He began organizing the first devopsdays event in 2009, which has since become an annual conference for exploring and advancing the movement.
Debois' accomplishments include:
• Pioneering the DevOps movement by organizing its first dedicated conference
• Co-authoring The Phoenix Project book with Gene Kim and Kevin Behr
• Founding Jardines de la Reina Consulting, a DevOps consultancy
• Creating numerous open source tools such as Slideshare and Puppet Dashboard
Overall, Patrick Debois has had a major influence on the development of DevOps as we know it today. As such, he is rightly considered to be its founder and father figure.