Sandhya Devanathan named new Meta India head 2 weeks after Ajit Mohan's resignation

Two weeks after the departure of its India head Ajit Mohan, Facebook's parent company Meta has appointed Sandhya Devanathan as its new top executive for the country. Devanathan will transition to her new position on January 1, 2023, according to a statement from Meta.

The former head Ajit Mohan left the company just before the mass layoffs started. He has joined Meta's rival Snapchat. 

Devanathan, who currently oversees the company's gaming vertical in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, will commence her new position on January 1 and relocate back to India to take charge of the organisation's strategy.

Who is Sandhya Devanathan?

• Devanathan is a corporate executive with 22 years of experience. She has worked in the fields of technology, banking, and payments.
• In January 2016, she began working with Meta (then known as Facebook) in Singapore as Group Director. She was appointed Managing Director for Singapore and Business Head for Vietnam by the tech giant in August.
• 2020 saw her go to lead the largest vertical for Meta globally - gaming for APAC.

• Devanathan is on the boards of numerous organisations. These organisations include the Women's Forum for the Economy and Society, Pepper Financial Services Group, National Library Board (Singapore), Singapore Management University, and the Ministry of Information and Communications (Singapore).
• She previously worked at Standard Chartered and then at Citigroup. She held different jobs at Citi between May 2000. On December 2009, she started working at Standard Chartered from December 2009 to 2015. She joined Meta in 2016.
• She attended Andhra University for her BTech in Chemical Engineering. Next, she went to Delhi University for her MBA (1998-2000). 
• She also took a leadership course from the University of Oxford in 2014.