Meta's vice president for India and Southeast Asia, Sandhya Devanathan, is departing the company after more than ten years to join OpenAI. Based in Singapore, she will report to OpenAI’s Asia-Pacific managing director Kiran Mani and oversee consumer growth, enterprise adoption, partnerships, regulatory engagement, and operations across Southeast Asia and Australia. Devanathan’s move highlights OpenAI’s expanding regional footprint and comes shortly after the company appointed Prabhjeet Singh, the former Uber India head, to lead its India operations.

This personnel change occurs amid escalating regulatory pressure on Meta in India, where the social media giant has faced heightened scrutiny over content moderation and online safety. Earlier in August, Meta apologized after Instagram mistakenly restricted a post by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an incident that prompted the Indian government to summon senior Meta executives, including global affairs chief Joel Kaplan. Additionally, authorities have raised alarms over child sexual abuse material appearing in advertisements on Meta’s platforms.

In response to these challenges, Meta has taken actions like removing more than 160,000 accounts linked to child exploitation signals in India over a six-month period and addressing violating ads reported in a BBC investigation. Despite these efforts, the company continues to navigate complex regulatory environments while managing its substantial presence in the region. Following Devanathan’s exit, Meta’s India managing director Arun Srinivas will report directly to Benjamin Joe, the company’s vice president for Asia Pacific.

OpenAI’s growth in the Asia-Pacific region over the past two years includes opening new offices in major cities such as Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney, and Delhi. The firm’s recruitment of executives with deep experience in the Indian and Southeast Asian markets indicates its commitment to scaling AI adoption and enterprise partnerships in these key territories. Devanathan’s expertise in consumer and regulatory affairs will be pivotal as OpenAI accelerates its operations across this diverse and rapidly evolving market landscape.