OpenAI Hires Meta's Sandhya Devanathan as SEA VP

Who is OpenAI hiring from Meta for Southeast Asia? On 28 August 2026 OpenAI confirmed to TechCrunch that Sandhya Devanathan, Meta’s vice president for India and Southeast Asia, is leaving the social giant after more than a decade to join the ChatGPT maker. CNBC-TV18 reports she starts in October 2026 in a newly created post — vice president for Southeast Asia and Australia — based in Singapore and reporting to OpenAI Asia-Pacific managing director Kiran Mani. She will be OpenAI’s senior-most leader for those markets.

The appointment lands days after OpenAI hired Prabhjeet Singh, formerly of Uber India and South Asia, as its India head, with some reports saying he joins in September. Together the two moves mark a sharper APAC bench for a lab that has opened offices in Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney, and Delhi over the past two years.

What Devanathan will run at OpenAI

OpenAI’s brief for the role covers consumer growth, enterprise adoption and partnerships, regulatory engagement, and operations across Southeast Asia and Australia. That mix matters because the region is not one market: Singapore hosts much of the company’s regional coordination, Australia is an English-language enterprise beachhead, and ASEAN economies differ sharply on language, payments, and AI policy.

Placing Devanathan in Singapore under Mani puts a former Meta India-and-SEA operator next to OpenAI’s consumer and B2B push at the same moment the company is also building an India leadership track under Singh. Readers following OpenAI’s India monetization path can pair this hire with <a href="https://www.promptcrates.com/news/openai-chatgpt-ads-india-free-go-tiers">ChatGPT’s India free and Go ad tiers</a>, which showed how product packaging and local pricing already sit on the same APAC calendar as executive hiring.

Meta India leadership after her exit

TechCrunch, citing a person familiar with the matter, said Meta India managing director Arun Srinivas will report directly to Benjamin Joe, Meta’s vice president for Asia Pacific, after Devanathan leaves. YourStory noted Joe’s LinkedIn comment that Srinivas would join his leadership team and take Meta India forward. The reporting frames a flatter India reporting line into Joe’s APAC organization rather than a like-for-like India-and-SEA VP replacement announced the same day.

Devanathan joined Meta in 2016, led APAC gaming, took charge of Meta India in January 2023, later added Southeast Asia, and was appointed vice president for India and Southeast Asia in June 2025. On 28 August she posted an emotional LinkedIn farewell looking ahead to her next chapter without naming the new employer; OpenAI’s confirmation to TechCrunch closed that gap the same news cycle. PTI and Rediff carried the farewell framing without inventing a named destination quote.

Why the timing sits next to Indian regulatory heat

TechCrunch’s 28 August file by Jagmeet Singh places the exit against rising Indian scrutiny of Meta. In July, Instagram mistakenly restricted a post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi; Meta apologized, and Indian authorities summoned Meta executives, including chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan. New Delhi also raised child-safety concerns about Instagram advertising after a BBC report. Meta said it removed violating ads and accounts, rejected claims that it had targeted such ads, and said it removed about 160,000 accounts in India over six months based on signals of child-exploitative activity. Those government concerns and Meta’s published response numbers are the public context around her departure — not a stated causal claim that regulators forced the move.

For OpenAI, hiring a leader who has already sat through Indian platform pressure is useful color for partnership and regulatory work across SEA and Australia, even though her OpenAI remit is not India. India remains Singh’s lane; Devanathan’s portfolio is Southeast Asia plus Australia, with Singapore as base.

What H2 2026 means for India, SEA, Australia, and Singapore

Geographic takeaway for the second half of 2026: OpenAI is stacking named regional operators rather than running APAC only from California. Singapore becomes the day-to-day seat for SEA and Australia under Mani. India gets a dedicated head in Singh. Australia sits inside Devanathan’s VP title, so Sydney office growth and enterprise deals should surface under her operations and partnership brief. Meta, meanwhile, keeps Srinivas leading India under Joe while it absorbs reputational and regulatory noise from the July Modi-post error and the child-safety inquiries.

Enterprise buyers in Jakarta, Bangkok, Singapore, and Sydney should expect denser OpenAI partner outreach and clearer local escalation paths once both October and September start dates land. Founders watching lab leadership churn can also read this hire against <a href="https://www.promptcrates.com/news/openai-executive-exodus-greg-brockman-day-to-day">OpenAI’s late-August U.S. executive reshuffle around Greg Brockman’s day-to-day role</a>: one story is headquarters bandwidth; this one is regional coverage.

Product teams comparing model vendors may also keep <a href="https://www.promptcrates.com/news/chatgpt-save-temporary-chats-personalization-controls">ChatGPT’s temporary-chat and personalization controls</a> and <a href="https://www.promptcrates.com/news/meta-anthropic-customer-spend-hatch-agent">Meta’s reported Anthropic customer spend and Hatch agent work</a> on the same desk — consumer trust settings and hyperscaler-lab buying are the commercial backdrop Devanathan will inherit when she talks enterprises and regulators.

How to log the 28 August OpenAI–Meta hire

Attribute OpenAI’s confirmation, the Singapore base, the Kiran Mani reporting line, the new VP title, and the consumer–enterprise–partnerships–regulatory–operations scope to TechCrunch’s 28 August report. Attribute the October 2026 start and “senior-most” SEA and Australia framing to CNBC-TV18. Attribute the Prabhjeet Singh India-head timing, Meta office list, and Srinivas-to-Joe reporting change to TechCrunch and related local coverage; attribute Joe’s LinkedIn remark to YourStory. Do not invent a Devanathan quote naming OpenAI — only the unnamed farewell looking to the next chapter, then OpenAI’s confirmation.

Sources

• <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/28/meta-executive-leaves-for-openai-as-the-social-media-giant-faces-growing-scrutiny-in-india/">Meta executive leaves for OpenAI as the social media giant faces growing scrutiny in India</a> — TechCrunch (Jagmeet Singh), 28 August 2026
• <a href="https://www.cnbctv18.com/technology/metas-india-southeast-asia-chief-sandhya-devanathan-quits-to-join-openai-19979149.htm">Meta’s India, Southeast Asia chief Sandhya Devanathan quits to join OpenAI</a> — CNBC-TV18, August 2026