Business

Sandhya Devanathan has been appointed as the new country head of Meta India, succeeding Ajit Mohan.

Published on November 17, 2022

Two weeks after Ajit Mohan, Meta’s former top executive for India, left the company; Sandhya Devanathan was named as his replacement. Devanathan will start serving as the country head of Meta India on January 1, 2023, according to a statement from Meta.

Devanathan is currently Meta’s Asia-Pacific (APAC) division’s vice-president of gaming. She will report to Dan Neary, vice president of Meta’s overall APAC business, in her new position. Devanathan previously served as Singapore’s country managing director and Vietnam’s business head.

Following several high-profile departures from the company’s India operations, Devanathan was appoint. The immediate departure of former country head Ajit Mohan was announce by Meta on November 3. The company revealed the departures of Rajiv Aggarwal, director of public policy at Meta India. And Abhijit Bose, country head of WhatsApp India, on November 15.

The departures occur during Meta’s most significant single layoff period.

On November 9, Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company would lay off 11,000 employees. Or roughly 13% of its workforce, and freeze all hiring until at least March of next year.

At the start of covid-19, the world quickly moved online, and the surge of e-commerce resulted in outsized revenue growth. Many people predicted this would be a long-term acceleration long after the pandemic was over. I felt the same way, so I significantly increased our investments.

“Unfortunately, this did not go as planned,” Zuckerberg said in a blog post announcing the company’s decision.

The move came from Twitter’s 50% workforce reduction. Which saw over 3,700 employees, including nearly its entire India staff, laid off. Amazon also announced on Wednesday that it would lay off employees, which according to reports, could total up to 10,000. In a blog post, Amazon’s senior vice president of devices, Dave Limp, start that the company will “consolidate” jobs and that “some roles will no longer be required.”