Meta expands India head’s role to lead Southeast Asia business

Facebook-parent Meta has expanded India head Sandhya Devanathan's role to lead the company’s Southeast Asia business. Further, Benjamin Joe, a Meta veteran of 14 years, will succeed Dan Neary as the vice president of the Asia Pacific region. 

Devanathan was appointed the India head for Meta after Ajit Mohan exited the company in 2022. Her appointment at that time came amid a flurry of high-profile exits from the company’s India ventures.

In the past, she has held several leadership positions at the company, including vice-president of gaming for Meta’s Asia-Pacific (APAC) division and the country managing director for Singapore and business head for Vietnam.

“Following Ben's appointment, Sandhya Devanathan, Vice President for Meta India, will expand her responsibilities to lead our business in both India and Southeast Asia.

Both Ben and Sandhya are exceptional leaders with strong track records. I’m confident that they will continue to drive growth and innovation for our valued partners and take our business to new heights," said Neary on the two appointments. 

In the past, she had leadership roles at Standard Chartered Bank and Citi. Devanathan is an alumna of the Faculty of Management Studies in Delhi. 

India is Meta’s largest market by users and a key region for its future growth. Earlier this week, Meta said that its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses would be available for sale in India from May 19.

Meta announced that its smart glasses launching in India will feature Meta AI, enabling them to answer questions about what user is seeing, translate audio and video in real time, send messages through your phone, make calls, and more.