Sandhya Devanathan will leave Meta after a decade to take up a newly created regional leadership role at OpenAI.
She will be based in Singapore and oversee growth, partnerships, regulatory engagement and operations.
Highlights
- Sandhya Devanathan is leaving Meta after spending around 10 years with the company.
- She will join OpenAI as Vice-President for Southeast Asia and Australia.
- Devanathan will be based in Singapore.
- She will report to Kiran Mani, Managing Director for OpenAI’s Asia-Pacific region.
- Her responsibilities will include consumer growth, enterprise adoption, partnerships and regulatory engagement.
- Devanathan joined Meta in 2016 and became its India head in 2023.
- She has more than 25 years of experience spanning banking, payments and technology.
Meta’s India head and vice-president Sandhya Devanathan is set to leave the social media company after a decade and join OpenAI in a senior regional leadership position.
Devanathan will join OpenAI as Vice-President for Southeast Asia and Australia, according to a Business Standard report. The newly created position will be based in Singapore, where she will report to Kiran Mani, OpenAI’s Managing Director for the Asia-Pacific region.
In her new position, Devanathan will oversee a wide range of functions across Southeast Asia and Australia. Her responsibilities will include driving consumer growth and enterprise adoption, developing partnerships, handling regulatory engagement and overseeing regional operations.
The appointment gives OpenAI an experienced technology executive as it expands its presence across the Asia-Pacific market. Devanathan brings more than 25 years of experience across banking, payments and technology businesses.
She joined Meta in 2016 and played a role in developing the company’s businesses and teams in Singapore and Vietnam. She was also involved with e-commerce initiatives in Southeast Asia. In 2020, she took charge of Meta’s gaming business for the Asia-Pacific region before being appointed India head in 2023.
Announcing her departure in a LinkedIn post, Devanathan reflected on how the digital landscape had changed since she joined Meta in 2016. During her tenure, she worked across businesses serving startups, companies, creators and users in the region.
Following her departure, Arun Srinivas, Meta’s Managing Director and Country Head, will report directly to Benjamin Joe, the company’s Vice-President for Asia Pacific.
