Meta India Executive Sandhya Devanathan Leaves for OpenAI Leadership Role

Meta’s vice president for India and Southeast Asia, Sandhya Devanathan, is leaving the company to join OpenAI, where she will oversee growth, partnerships, regulatory engagement, and operations across Southeast Asia and Australia.

OpenAI said Devanathan will be based in Singapore and report to the company’s Asia-Pacific managing director Kiran Mani. Her responsibilities will include expanding consumer adoption, enterprise engagement, and regional partnerships for OpenAI’s products.

Devanathan joins OpenAI after more than a decade at Meta, where she held several leadership positions. She joined the company in 2016 and previously led Meta’s Asia Pacific gaming business before becoming vice president for India and Southeast Asia.

The move comes as OpenAI continues expanding its presence across the Asia-Pacific region. The company has opened offices in Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney, and Delhi over the past two years, and recently appointed former Uber executive Prabhjeet Singh as its India head.

At Meta, Devanathan was involved in leadership decisions in India as the company faced increased scrutiny over online safety and content moderation issues.

Meta recently faced questions from Indian authorities after Instagram mistakenly restricted a post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July. The company later apologised, and Indian officials summoned Meta executives, including chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan, over the incident.

Meta’s handling of the restricted post incident added to wider discussions around platform moderation and regulatory oversight in India.

The company has also faced scrutiny over child safety concerns. After reports raised concerns about advertisements allegedly linked to child sexual abuse material on Instagram, Meta said it removed violating ads and accounts and rejected claims that it knowingly targeted users with such content.

Reports on Instagram-related child safety concerns led Indian authorities to seek explanations from the company. Meta said it had removed accounts associated with child-exploitative activity and outlined its enforcement efforts.

Following Devanathan’s departure, Meta India managing director Arun Srinivas will report directly to Benjamin Joe, the company’s vice president for Asia Pacific, according to people familiar with the matter.

Devanathan’s move adds to the list of senior technology executive transitions as AI companies continue recruiting experienced leaders from major internet platforms to support global expansion.