Devanathan will drive consumer growth, enterprise adoption, and regulatory work in Southeast Asia and Australia.

Sandhya Devanathan, Meta’s vice president for India and Southeast Asia, is leaving the company after more than a decade to join OpenAI. She will work from Singapore and report to OpenAI’s Asia-Pacific managing director, Kiran Mani. Her remit covers consumer growth, enterprise adoption, partnerships, regulatory engagement, and operations across Southeast Asia and Australia.

Devanathan joined Meta in 2016 and held leadership roles including head of the Asia-Pacific gaming business. She became vice president for India and Southeast Asia in June last year. Her departure comes as Meta faces mounting pressure from Indian authorities over content moderation and online safety, including a recent apology after Instagram restricted a post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

OpenAI’s Asia Pacific expansion gains a leader with deep enterprise and government experience. Devanathan’s brief includes building partnerships and managing regulatory engagement, both critical for enterprise customers. Developers and operators in Southeast Asia and Australia can expect stronger local support and clearer compliance alignment.

OpenAI has opened offices in Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney, and Delhi over the past two years. With Devanathan in Singapore and Prabhjeet Singh recently named India head, the company is building a regional leadership team. Watch for further senior hires and deeper engagement with regulators as OpenAI scales across Asia Pacific.

What matters

• Sandhya Devanathan leaves Meta after a decade to lead OpenAI’s Southeast Asia growth.
• The hire signals OpenAI’s push to win enterprise and regulatory trust in Asia Pacific.
• Watch for more OpenAI hires in India and tighter Meta scrutiny from New Delhi.

Why it matters

Watch for more OpenAI hires in India and tighter Meta scrutiny from New Delhi.

This GenAI News article was prepared in original wording using reporting and materials published by TechCrunch AI. Source reference: https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/28/meta-executive-leaves-for-openai-as-the-social-media-giant-faces-growing-scrutiny-in-india/.

Drafted by the GenAI News review pipeline.