Meta Executive Leaves for OpenAI Amid India Scrutiny
Sandhya Devanathan is joining OpenAI to oversee growth, partnerships, and operations across Southeast Asia and Australia as Meta faces new pressure in India.
Meta’s India and Southeast Asia vice president, Sandhya Devanathan, is leaving the company to join OpenAI, according to information shared with TechCrunch. The move comes as India scrutiny of Meta continues to build, especially around safety and moderation issues on its platforms.
In her new role, Devanathan will be based in Singapore and report to OpenAI’s Asia-Pacific managing director, Kiran Mani. OpenAI said she will oversee consumer growth, enterprise adoption, partnerships, regulatory engagement, and operations across Southeast Asia and Australia. That makes her appointment part of a broader push by the ChatGPT maker to deepen its presence across the region.
For OpenAI, the hire adds an executive with direct experience leading large regional businesses in one of the world’s most important tech markets. Devanathan spent more than a decade at Meta and held multiple leadership roles there, including running its Asia Pacific gaming business before becoming vice president for India and Southeast Asia last year. Her move follows the recent arrival of Prabhjeet Singh as OpenAI’s India head, another sign that the company is building out regional leadership.
India Scrutiny Raises The Stakes For Meta
Devanathan’s departure comes at a sensitive time for Meta. The company has faced growing pressure from Indian authorities in recent weeks over issues tied to online safety and content moderation. Earlier this month, Meta apologized after Instagram mistakenly restricted a post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July. Indian officials responded by summoning Meta executives, including chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan, over the incident.
New Delhi has also raised concerns about child sexual abuse material on Meta’s platforms. Last month, the government sought an explanation after a BBC report said Instagram advertisements allegedly offered access to such content. Meta said in response that it had removed violating ads and accounts and rejected claims that it knowingly targeted users based on inappropriate interests.
The company also said it removed 160,000 accounts in India over six months based on signals linked to child-exploitative activity. Those steps may help demonstrate enforcement, but the broader issue for Meta is reputational: regulators are watching closely, and repeated incidents can increase pressure on the company’s policies and operations in the country.
What OpenAI Gains From The Hire
OpenAI has been steadily expanding across Asia-Pacific, opening offices in Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney, and Delhi over the past two years. Devanathan’s appointment fits that strategy by giving the company a senior operator who can work across consumer, enterprise, partnerships, and regulatory matters in Southeast Asia and Australia.
That scope matters because OpenAI’s regional growth will depend on more than product launches. It will also need enterprise relationships, local partnerships, and ongoing regulatory engagement as governments across the region pay closer attention to how AI tools are deployed. A leader based in Singapore can help coordinate those priorities across multiple markets rather than treating each one separately.
The timing is notable as OpenAI keeps adding regional leadership. With Singh now leading India operations and Devanathan taking on Southeast Asia and Australia, the company appears to be organizing around country-specific and region-specific management rather than relying only on a centralized global team.
What To Watch Next
For readers, the practical question is whether OpenAI’s expanded regional staffing will translate into faster product adoption and more tailored business development in Asia-Pacific. The company is signaling that it wants deeper engagement with local enterprises and regulators, not just more users.
For Meta, the key issue is whether the current wave of India scrutiny becomes a longer-term operational challenge. If Indian regulators continue pressing the company on moderation, safety, and harmful content, Meta may need to make further changes to policy enforcement and public communication.
What happens next will likely depend on two parallel tracks: OpenAI’s ability to turn new leadership into regional growth, and Meta’s ability to contain the policy and trust issues drawing attention in India. Both companies are now operating in a more closely watched environment, where leadership moves and regulatory responses can shape their standing in the market.