OpenAI has hired Sandhya Devanathan, Meta's Vice President for India and Southeast Asia, to lead its commercial and operational expansion across Southeast Asia and Australia.
Devanathan, who spent nearly a decade in senior leadership roles at Meta, will be based out of Singapore and report to Kiran Mani, OpenAI's Managing Director for the Asia-Pacific region. In her new role, she will oversee consumer product adoption, enterprise sales and partnerships, government and regulatory relations, and general operational strategy across Southeast Asian markets and Australia.
Expanding OpenAI's Footprint Across APAC
The hire marks OpenAI's second major regional talent acquisition in recent weeks. The company recently appointed Prabhjeet Singh, the former head of Uber's India and South Asia business, to lead operations in India.
Over the past two years, OpenAI has established regional offices in Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney, and New Delhi. The expansion reflects rising enterprise demand for frontier models, fine-tuning infrastructure, and localized developer support across the Asia-Pacific region.
Devanathan joined Meta in 2016, initially leading its Asia-Pacific gaming division before being appointed Vice President for India and Southeast Asia in 2025. Following her departure, Meta India Managing Director Arun Srinivas will report directly to Benjamin Joe, Meta's Vice President for Asia-Pacific.
Enterprise Adoption and Regional Policy
Southeast Asia and Australia have emerged as critical battlegrounds for LLM providers targeting enterprise workflows, financial services, and localized AI applications. In Australia, enterprise adoption of foundation model APIs has surged across banking, telecom, and government contractors. Across Southeast Asia, governments and regional tech conglomerates are actively procuring enterprise AI solutions while balancing localized data residency and content safety requirements.
Devanathan's appointment positions OpenAI to accelerate its enterprise sales pipeline and manage regulatory engagement across regional jurisdictions as competition with Anthropic, Google, and open-weight ecosystems intensifies.
