Meta Appoints Arun Srinivas as Managing Director and Head for India.

In a strategic leadership move, Meta Platforms Inc., headquartered in California, USA, has appointed Arun Srinivas as the new Managing Director (MD) and Head of Meta India, effective July 1, 2025. This transition is part of Meta’s broader plan to reinforce leadership in one of its largest growth markets, following the exit of Sandhya Devanathan from the India MD role as she now leads the company’s operations across India and Southeast Asia (SEA).

      - Arun Srinivas succeeds Sandhya Devanathan, who has now taken over a larger regional role. Srinivas will be responsible for driving Meta’s India strategy, focusing on business growth, innovation, advertiser engagement, and revenue expansion. He will continue to report directly to Sandhya Devanathan, Meta’s Vice President for India & Southeast Asia.

      - Arun Srinivas brings with him almost three decades of experience in the domains of sales, marketing, and digital strategy. He began his corporate career in 1996 at Reebok and later served in multiple key positions at Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) until 2017, eventually becoming VP – Foods South Asia, based in Mumbai.

      - Before joining Meta, he worked as Operating Advisor at WestBridge Capital (2017–2019), and then held dual roles of Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Global Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Ola from 2019 to 2020, overseeing business expansion and customer engagement strategies in India and overseas.

Main Point :-   (i) Since joining Meta in September 2020 as Director and Head of Ads Business for India, Arun Srinivas led the company’s monetization strategy, focusing on scaling the ads ecosystem and building advertiser confidence across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp using AI tools and regional outreach.

      (ii) This leadership change comes at a time when Meta is addressing regulatory challenges and data governance issues in India. With growing scrutiny from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and concerns over WhatsApp's data-sharing framework, having a strong and experienced leader at the helm is crucial for sustaining growth and compliance.

(iii) India remains a key market for Meta, with explosive growth in areas like business messaging, Reels, creator economy, and AI innovation. Under Arun Srinivas’s leadership, Meta aims to deepen advertiser relationships, invest in regional content creators, and enhance small business engagement through Meta platforms.