Sandhya Devanathan, India head of Facebook’s parent company Meta, began her stint with the company in 2016 as group director, SEA-Ecommerce, Travel and FinServ, in Singapore. With 22 years of experience in banking, payments and technology, Devanathan relocated to India after 17 years abroad, a move she describes as “equal parts exhilarating and challenging.” She has her eye on three areas—how Meta can play a role in India’s technological transformation with focus on MSMEs, how to encourage innovation and Meta’s commitment to small businesses. The company has since launched Meta Small Business Academy, born out of its 2021 commitment to upskill 10 million small businesses. This will help entrepreneurs with digital marketing skills start advertising journey on their apps.
With India being one of the most consequential markets, Devanathan’s mandate is to connect millions of users across platforms, be it Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and the new addition, Threads. India is home to 369.9 million Facebook users. Devanathan believes in tech’s ability to drive value for businesses. “There’s a hunger of developers that’s apparent across the country. In India, there’s a lot of appetite, especially among women entrepreneurs and Tier II-III cities.”
She serves as board member of organisations such as Pepper Financial Services Group and Singapore’s National Library Board. — Urvashi Mishra