Sandhya Devanathan, a long-time technology executive who spent a decade at Meta, will move to OpenAI in a senior leadership role in Southeast Asia and Australia. She will be based in Singapore and work under OpenAI’s Managing Director for Asia-Pacific Kiran Mani.
Devanathan brings more than 25 years of technology and financial services to her new position. Before joining OpenAI she was Meta’s Vice President and Head of India and Southeast Asia, where she held a number of leadership roles after joining the company in 2016. She worked in Meta’s ecommerce, gaming and regional business development roles and in a very strategic market and managed the operations of Meta in one of its most important markets.
It is an important step in transferring from social media and digital to artificial intelligence, and her entry into OpenAI is a major one. OpenAI has created the role as part of its wider regional expansion and Devanathan will be its most senior executive in Southeast Asia and Australia. She will be responsible for consumer growth, enterprise adoption, partnerships, regulatory engagement and regional operations.
Sandhya Devanathan’s career at Meta
Devanathan joined Meta in 2016 and took part in a decade with the company in the Asia-Pacific region. She worked on several businesses and markets in Singapore and Vietnam and also worked on ecommerce initiatives in Southeast Asia. She also ran Meta’s Asia-Pacific gaming business and rose to the level of senior country and region leadership.
She took on a more expanded role as Meta’s Vice President and Head of India in January 2023. She was in charge of Meta’s India business and business strategy and revenue targets in the country. The role then extended to Southeast Asia, which was a larger and more diverse region.
Devanathan highlighted examples in her time at Meta of how digital platforms were being used by businesses, creators and public institutions around the region. These included government citizen services delivered through WhatsApp in India and small businesses using Meta's platforms in Southeast Asian markets such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand.
Why her OpenAI appointment is important?
Devanathan’s appointment comes at a time when artificial intelligence companies are competing to expand their presence across Asia-Pacific. It is home to one of the world’s fastest-growing digital ecosystems and large consumer and business markets. OpenAI is expanding physically and operationally with offices and teams in Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney and New Delhi.
Her experience in working with governments, companies, startups and technology ecosystems could be of particular relevance to OpenAI as it tries to get more people to use AI tools. She will now be responsible for creating partnerships and working in collaboration with regulators and expanding OpenAI products to more consumers and businesses and enterprises.
The appointment also follows OpenAI’s recent strengthening of its leadership structure in the region. In June, the company appointed former Uber India and South Asia President Prabhjeet Singh as Managing Director for India. Kiran Mani, who has previously been in technology industry-level leadership positions, will be running OpenAI’s Asia-Pacific operations from Singapore.
What Will Devanathan Do at OpenAI?
Devanathan will manage OpenAI’s growth strategy in Southeast Asia and Australia in her new role. That will mean raising consumer adoption, building enterprise relationships and forging partnerships with businesses and institutions. Regulatory engagement will also be a big part of the job as governments around the world develop policies and frameworks for artificial intelligence.
Her job isn’t only about commercial growth. The position also consists of operations as well as engagement with the wider AI ecosystem. That might involve working with the tech teams, developers, educational institutions, governments and other organizations that are looking for a framework for AI.
The regional focus is significant because Southeast Asia has a lot of different markets and languages, regulatory systems, economic structures, and technology adoption patterns. Australia is a mature technology market with its own regulatory and enterprise landscape. Managing such a diverse region requires extensive experience in local markets and large-scale technology operations.
From Meta to OpenAI
Devanathan announced her departure from Meta in a LinkedIn post and described the decision to leave after more than a decade as “bittersweet” and said she was looking forward to her next chapter. She did not announce publicly her next job at the time but OpenAI confirmed her. She’ll begin in October.
Her departure is a significant change of leadership for Meta, and her move brings OpenAI a leadership group with extensive access to Asian technology markets. Devanathan’s knowledge of regional businesses and how to work with companies and institutions could be useful as AI adoption develops.
OpenAI’s choice is just the latest sign of the Asia-Pacific becoming the foundation of its global approach. And now that OpenAI is getting closer to users and businesses in a rapidly changing regulatory environment, it has to make more sense for the company to do so.
A new chapter of AI
Sandhya Devanathan’s transition from Meta to OpenAI puts her at the forefront of two crucial sectors of technology: social platforms and artificial intelligence. Her previous experience gives her a good understanding of how technology products scale across diverse Asian markets, and her new role will require her to apply that experience to one of the world’s fastest-growing technology sectors.
Devanathan will be at the heart of OpenAI's regional expansion and partnerships and engagement strategy as it expands to Asia-Pacific. Her appointment is therefore significant not only for her own career change but also because it helps to bridge the gap between Southeast Asia and Australia in the global AI race.
With OpenAI strengthening the leadership team in India and the wider Asia-Pacific region it seems to be focusing on local knowledge as well as regional execution. Devanathan’s appointment is another high-level tech leader for the company as it looks to get AI adoption into the mainstream of consumers, companies and institutions.
Devanathan has a new chapter after a decade at Meta. For OpenAI, it is a place where an executive with more than two decades of technology and financial services experience will be thrust into a very strategic position. OpenAI will be watched closely for what she does in Southeast Asia and Australia.
