Who is Sandhya Devanathan? Former Meta India head joins OpenAI as Asia-Pacific Leader

Meta India and Southeast Asia head Sandhya Devanathan is all set to join OpenAI in a newly curated senior leadership role overseeing Southeast Asia and Australia.

Sandhya Devanathan joins OpenAI

Devanathan will join OpenAI as Vice President for Southeast Asia and Australia. She will be the company’s most senior leader responsible for the region. Devanathan will be based in Singapore, reporting to Kiran Mani, who is the Managing Director of OpenAI for Asia-Pacific.

The news about Sandhya Devanathan's appointment comes as OpenAI is reportedly heading towards its expansion across the Asia-Pacific region. It is believed that the company is seeking to drive wider adoption of its artificial intelligence (AI) products among consumers, businesses and developers.

In the new role, Sandhya Devanathan will be responsible for OpenAI’s regional growth across Southeast Asia and Australia, including consumer adoption, enterprise partnerships, regulatory engagement and operations. She will also be tasked with expanding the company’s user base while focusing its relationships with governments, institutions and key technology stakeholders across the same region.

The newly created position is reported to be aimed at strengthening OpenAI’s leadership and execution capabilities across some of Asia-Pacific’s fastest-growing technology markets amid growing competition among global technology companies.

However, Devanathan's joining date at OpenAI is not known yet.

Devanathan’s company change comes as OpenAI continues to expand its physical and operational footprint across Asia-Pacific. The company is said to be working towards building teams and offices across key markets such as Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney and New Delhi.

Who is Sandhya Devanathan

Sandhya Devanathan took over after Ajit Mohan resigned from Meta as India head. Meta owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. She joined

Meta in 2016. At Meta, she was responsible for the Singapore and Vietnam businesses and teams. She also looked after Meta's e-commerce initiatives in Southeast Asia.

Sandhya Devanathan has 25+ years of experience across banking, payments and technology.

Sandhya Devanathan on leaving Meta

Taking to LinkedIn, Devanathan opened up about her decision to part ways after spending more than a decade at Meta. She called it "bittersweet" and said she would take a short break before beginning her "next exciting chapter".

"I joined Meta when we had just about 300 employees in Singapore," she said and added how the company looked "so different" in 2016.

"And we were right in the midst of it - helping startups, companies, creators and the ecosystem grow across the region while delivering great experiences for hundreds of millions of our users," she added.

Devanathan called herself "incredibly proud" of what her teams achieved and thanked her colleagues, businesses and others at Meta.

"Over the years, I've had the privilege of working across sectors like ecommerce and gaming in APAC, and leading talented teams across India and Southeast Asia. Throughout this journey, I've been fueled by the belief that our work brings meaningful connections to people and businesses worldwide," she further wrote.

"I shared with my teams today that I am extraordinarily proud of how they've shown up every day, doing the best work they can in an industry that is rapidly evolving. I'm proud of the work we've done together - be the millions of people using government citizen services on WA (WhatsApp) in India or the millions of small businesses in Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand who opened their storefronts on our apps or helping startups become unicorns in Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines...the stories are many and I am incredibly proud of everything we've built together," her post also read.