- Sandhya Devanathan, who currently leads Meta’s gaming vertical in the APAC region, will join as vice president of the company’s India business on January 1, 2023.
Following the departure of Ajit Mohan, Facebook-parent Meta has appointed Sandhya Devanathan as the new Head and Vice President of its India business. Devanathan will assume the position on January 1, 2023, and will report to Dan Neary, Meta’s Vice President for the APAC region. Devanathan joined the company in 2016 and helped build its Singapore and Vietnam operations while also working on the company’s South East Asian e-commerce initiatives. She will return to India to lead the organization and its strategy there.
In 2020, she was promoted to the position of APAC gaming leader. She is Meta’s Executive Sponsor for Women@APAC. Devanathan also serves as the global lead for Play Forward, a Meta initiative to increase diversity in the gaming industry. She is also a member of the Pepper Financial Services board of directors.
Devanathan takes over as head of Meta’s India business at a difficult time for the company, which has recently laid off over 11,000 employees, or 13% of its workforce. According to Reuters, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s costly bet on the metaverse project increased the company’s overall costs by a fifth in the third quarter.
As a result, investors dumped Meta’s stock, sending it down 20% and wiping out nearly $67 billion in market value for the company, which also reported its fourth consecutive quarterly profit decline. According to Reuters, the company’s disappointing outlook comes as it deals with slowing global economic growth, Apple privacy changes that affect its advertising business, and intense competition from TikTok.
Ajit Mohan, who had occupied the role that Devanathan will soon fill, left the company and joined its competitor Snap as the president of its Asia Pacific business. Other departures from the company include Abhijit Bose, who led WhatsApp in India, and Raji Aggarwal, who served as the director of public policy for Meta in India.