When it rains, it pours. That’s the case right now for Twitter’s business in Asia after a third senior executive announced their departure from the company.
Parminder Singh, who oversaw the business in India, Southeast Asia and the Middle East for the past three years, today announced that he is moving on to pastures new within the next month. Singh’s impending exit comes two days after Twitter’s head of India, Rishi Jaitly, revealed that he too is leaving the company. Karen Stocks, who headed Twitter in Australia, departed last week.
In a notable footnote to Singh’s departure, sales in the region that he handled has been restructured. The Middle East business now falls into the jurisdiction of Twitter’s European team, with India and Southeast Asia now grouped into the general APAC remit. Those latter two markets had been broken out into their own division, which Singh ran, separate to the APAC management to prioritize a more localized approach.
These changes look like part of a company streamlining process, announced last month, which includes layoffs that will affect nine percent of Twitter’s staff. Other changes for Twitter’s Asia business have included the departure of around 20 staff from its Bangalore office in September, while cost-cutting measures will see a number of roles “transitioned” from its Hong Kong office to the regional headquarters in Singapore. It is unclear whether employees from either office losing their jobs.
Twitter provided the following statement:
We thank Parry for his contributions and leadership over the past three years at Twitter. He has been instrumental in setting up a strong business foundation across Southeast Asia, India and MENA, including some of our most promising emerging markets.
He has built and developed strong local teams across multiple geographies and established cross-functional operations that will have a long term impact on our business.
Parry felt now is an appropriate time for him to pursue other passions and work on his next adventure to help a content-based start up in Singapore and India. Over the next month, he will be closely involved in transitioning the business to the new leadership for continuity and momentum.
As part of our sales restructuring process, the MENA region will now be part of our EMEA business, while Southeast Asia & India remain part of our Asia Pacific business, headed by Aliza Knox, our VP of Asia Pacific.
Maya Hari is our new Managing Director of Southeast Asia and India reporting to Aliza Knox. Maya previously managed Twitter’s Ads Product Strategy & Adoption for Asia Pacific, MENA and Latin America.
For India: Taranjeet Singh continues to be Twitter’s Business Head for India and remains the key client contact for Indian brand marketers and advertisers.
We wish Parry all the best and will continue to invest in these important regions to make Twitter the best way to see what’s happening right now around the world.