Meta India VP Sandhya Devanathan Joins OpenAI
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- Sandhya Devanathan is leaving Meta after more than a decade to join OpenAI as a regional leader based in Singapore, reporting to Asia-Pacific managing director Kiran Mani and overseeing consumer growth, enterprise adoption, partnerships, regulatory engagement, and operations across Southeast Asia and Australia.
- Meta has faced growing scrutiny from Indian authorities in recent weeks, with New Delhi summoning executives including chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan after Instagram mistakenly restricted a post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July.
- India's government has also raised concerns about child sexual abuse material on Meta's platforms following a BBC report; Meta said it removed violating ads and accounts, and disclosed it had removed 160,000 accounts in India over six months based on signals indicating child-exploitative activity.
- Devanathan joined Meta in 2016 and held several leadership roles, including leading its Asia Pacific gaming business, before being appointed vice president for India and Southeast Asia in June 2024.
- Prabhjeet Singh also recently joined OpenAI as its India head after more than a decade at Uber, where he led its India and South Asia business.
- OpenAI has expanded across Asia Pacific over the past two years, opening offices in Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney, and Delhi.
- Following Devanathan's departure, Meta India managing director Arun Srinivas will report directly to Benjamin Joe, the company's vice president for Asia Pacific.
Why it matters: Devanathan exits Meta while the company faces rising Indian regulatory pressure, including the summoning of its chief global affairs officer; OpenAI has hired two senior regional leaders in days and expanded to five Asia Pacific offices over two years, building a leadership bench to pursue enterprise and consumer growth across the region.
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