Umang Bedi, who joined the leading social media giant Facebook, as Managing Director, India and South Asia in June 2016, has decided to move on from the company. In a statement released by the company, Facebook said, “We confirm that Umang Bedi will be leaving his role and Facebook at the end of this year. He’s built a really strong team and business during his time with us, and we wish him all the best.”
Sandeep Bhushan, director, consumer and media, South Asia, Facebook, will take over as interim MD. Earlier, Sandeep Bhushan had also served as Samsung’s IT and mobile business director.
Umang Bedi former Adobe South Asia region MD had joined as Managing Director, Facebook India and South Asia in 2016. He was mainly responsible for building and maintaining strategic relationships with top clients and regional agencies in the country. He had taken over the reins from Kirthiga Reddy, who returned to the US to take on a new role at the company’s headquarters at Menlo Park.
“India is known for its great talent pool and we are really pleased to have Umang Bedi, a proven business executive to lead our business in India. I also want to wish Kirthiga the very best in her new global role. Kirthiga has played a huge and key role in building our India business from scratch, and I know she will continue to deliver the same impact in the US,” Dan Neary, Vice President, Asia Pacific, Facebook had said during Bedi’s appointment.
Umang Bedi has close to two decades of leadership experience covering sales, marketing and partnerships where he successfully built teams and grew businesses for multinational companies. At Adobe, Bedi was responsible for growing their business in India and helping India grow to amongst the leading markets for Adobe.
Notably, Umang Bedi is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and the recipient of the ‘40 Under Forty: India’s Hottest Business Leaders Award 2014’ in 2014. “For me it’s a promising opportunity to participate in India’s digital growth, and I can’t think of a better place to be at,” Umang Bedi had expressed during his appointment in 2016.
According to media reports, Facebook users in India have crossed 240-million mark becoming the largest audience country for the social media giant. In July this year, Facebook reported a total “potential audience” of 241 million active users in India, compared with 240 million in the US. As on June 30th 2017, Facebook ranked 8th in the list of top ten firms with highest market capitalisation across the globe with a staggering $356 billion value. Six other technology related company were also in the list, underscoring the importance of “data” in the current times.
