New Delhi: Meta’s vice president and head for India and South  East Asia Sandhya Devanathan has decided to step down after a tenure of more than 10 years. She is set to transition to OpenAI, where she will take on the newly created role of vice president for South East Asia and Australia.

In her upcoming capacity, Devanathan will serve as OpenAI’s top executive for the region, overseeing consumer expansion, enterprise integration, strategic partnerships, regulatory affairs and overall operations.

While Devanathan shared an emotional announcement regarding her Meta exit on LinkedIn, stating she was eager for her “next exciting chapter” without naming her next destination, OpenAI subsequently confirmed her appointment. Based out of Singapore, she will report directly to Kiran Mani, OpenAI’s managing director for Asia Pacific. Her official start date has not yet been disclosed.

The high-profile hire aligns with the AI firm's rapid expansion across the Asia Pacific region to meet accelerating demand from consumers, businesses and developers. Over the last two years, the Sam Altman-led firm has set up regional hubs in Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney and Delhi. This follows other strategic leadership hires, including Prabhjeet Singh as managing director for India in June, and the establishment of an office in New Delhi in November 2025.

Bringing over 25 years of experience across fintech and technology, Devanathan joined Meta in 2016. She held multiple key roles, including heading its APAC gaming vertical and driving business growth across Singapore and Vietnam.

Reflecting on her departure, Devanathan acknowledged that leaving after a decade was “bittersweet” and mentioned she would take a brief hiatus before embarking on her next role. She fondly remembered joining Meta when the Singapore team comprised roughly 300 staff members during a massive surge in digital transformation.

“I joined Meta when we had just about 300 employees in Singapore,” she recounted.

“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 wrote.

Highlighting the impact of her teams across APAC, she noted key accomplishments, such as enabling government citizen services via WhatsApp in India and empowering small businesses in Southeast Asia to build digital storefronts.

“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 added.

Calling the transition an “emotional” moment, she praised the teams she managed over the years for their resilience in a fast-changing industry.

“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,” she wrote.

PTI