Key facts
- Sandhya Devanathan, Meta's VP for India and Southeast Asia, is leaving to join OpenAI.
- Devanathan will be based in Singapore and will oversee regional growth, adoption, partnerships, and operations for OpenAI.
- Her departure follows Meta's increased scrutiny in India over online safety and content moderation issues.
- Meta recently apologized after Instagram mistakenly restricted a post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
- Indian authorities have also expressed concerns about child sexual abuse material on Meta's platforms.
Sandhya Devanathan, who served as Meta's Vice President for India and Southeast Asia, is departing the social media company to join OpenAI, the artificial intelligence firm behind ChatGPT. Devanathan, who spent over a decade at Meta, will be based in Singapore and will report to OpenAI's Asia-Pacific managing director, Kiran Mani. Her new role will encompass consumer growth, enterprise adoption, partnerships, regulatory engagement, and operations across Southeast Asia and Australia.
Devanathan's move to OpenAI follows the recent appointment of Prabhjeet Singh as OpenAI's India head. OpenAI has been actively expanding its presence in the Asia Pacific region, establishing offices in Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney, and Delhi over the past two years.
Following Devanathan's departure, Meta's India managing director, Arun Srinivas, will now report directly to Benjamin Joe, Meta's Vice President for Asia-Pacific.
Meta has recently encountered increased scrutiny from Indian authorities. Earlier this month, the company issued an apology after Instagram mistakenly restricted a post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This incident led to the Indian government summoning Meta executives, including its chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan. Additionally, New Delhi has raised concerns regarding child sexual abuse material on Meta's platforms, prompted by a BBC report alleging advertisements offering access to such content. Meta stated that it had removed violating ads and accounts, and highlighted its efforts to remove approximately 160,000 accounts in India over six months due to indicators of child-exploitative activity.