Yet another RegEx question

[davus]

I have a path:   User/Me/aFolder/anotherFolder/variableFolder/someOtherStuff

string $variableA = "variableFolder";

I need everything in the path to be returned up until the $variableA in the path (I'm using MEL not Python). That folder and its children will be replaced with a loop later on, but i need to keep the path before $variableA stored in a separate variable. 

I've come up with some convoluted MEL that will get me the answer. But I'm sure there is an easier way. 

[joojaa]

string $path="User/Me/aFolder/anotherFolder/variableFolder/someOtherStuff";
string $s1 = `substitute "variableFolder/.*" $path ""`;
print $s1

[davus]

Thanks Joojaa