OpenAI has recruited a senior Meta executive as the social media company confronts intensifying regulatory pressure in India. Sandhya Devanathan, who served as Meta’s vice president for India and Southeast Asia, is departing to join the maker of ChatGPT, according to OpenAI.
Devanathan will be based in Singapore and will report to Kiran Mani, OpenAI’s managing director for the Asia-Pacific region. In her new role, she will oversee consumer growth, enterprise adoption, partnerships, regulatory engagement, and operations across Southeast Asia and Australia.
A Decade at Meta Comes to an End
The move closes out a tenure of more than ten years at Meta for Devanathan, who joined the company in 2016. She held a series of leadership positions, including running the company’s Asia-Pacific gaming business, before being named vice president for India and Southeast Asia in June of last year. A person familiar with the matter said she was part of Meta’s decision-making process in the country.
Following her exit, Meta’s India managing director, Arun Srinivas, will report directly to Benjamin Joe, the company’s vice president for Asia Pacific, according to a person familiar with the situation.
OpenAI Deepens Its Asia-Pacific Footprint
Devanathan’s hiring lands just days after Prabhjeet Singh signed on as OpenAI’s India head. Singh spent more than a decade at Uber, where he led the ride-hailing company’s India and South Asia operations. The two appointments underscore OpenAI’s push into the region, where it has opened offices in Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney, and Delhi over the past two years.
Mounting Regulatory Pressure in India
The executive departure comes as Meta navigates heightened scrutiny from Indian authorities over online safety and content moderation. Earlier this month, the company apologized after Instagram mistakenly restricted a July post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Indian officials summoned Meta executives, including chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan, in connection with the incident.
Authorities in New Delhi have also flagged concerns about child sexual abuse material on the company’s platforms. Last month, the government requested an explanation after a report found Instagram advertisements that allegedly offered access to such content.
In response, Meta said in a blog post that it had removed the violating ads and accounts, and it rejected the notion that it knowingly directed such advertisements toward users based on inappropriate interests. The company stated that it had removed 160,000 accounts in India over a six-month period based on signals indicating child-exploitative activity.
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