ChatGPT maker Meta told TechCrunch that Sandhya Devanathan, Meta’s vice president of India and Southeast Asia, is leaving the social media giant to join OpenAI.
Devanathan will be based in Singapore and will report to Kiran Mani, OpenAI’s Asia Pacific Managing Director. OpenAI said he will oversee consumer growth, enterprise adoption and partnerships, regulatory efforts and operations across Southeast Asia and Australia.
The executive is leaving Meta after more than a decade at Meta, which has come under intense scrutiny over issues such as online safety and content moderation. Sources said Mr. Devanathan was involved in the company’s decision-making process in the country.
Devanathan’s appointment comes days after Prabhjeet Singh joined OpenAI as head of India. Mr. Singh spent more than a decade at Uber, leading its operations in India and South Asia.
OpenAI has expanded its presence across Asia Pacific over the past two years, opening offices in Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney, and Delhi.
Following Devanathan’s departure, Meta’s managing director for India, Arun Srinivas, will report directly to Benjamin Joe, the company’s vice president for Asia Pacific, a person familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.
Mr. Devanathan joined Meta in 2016 and held several leadership roles at the company, including leading the games business in Asia Pacific, before being appointed vice president of India and Southeast Asia in June last year.
Mehta has faced increasing pressure from Indian authorities in recent weeks. Earlier this month, the company apologized after Instagram mistakenly restricted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s posts in July. The Indian government has summoned Mehta executives, including Chief International Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan, over the incident.
The city of New Delhi has also expressed concern over child sexual abuse content on the company’s platform. Last month, the Indian government demanded an explanation from the company after a BBC report uncovered Instagram ads that allegedly provided access to such content.
Meta said in a blog post at the time that it had removed the offending ads and accounts, rejecting suggestions that it was intentionally targeting users with such ads based on inappropriate interests. The company also noted that it had removed 160,000 accounts in India over a six-month period based on indicators of child exploitation activity.
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