Twitter Asia in troubled waters as it sees second high profile exit

Just two days after Twitter’s India head Rishi Jaitley quit, another senior executive took to social media to make his exit known to the world.

Parminder Singh, who oversaw the business in India, Southeast Asia and the Middle East for the past three years, said he is moving on to new pastures within the next month. This is the third high profile exit reported in Twitter. Karen Stocks, who headed Twitter in Australia,
departed last week.

An update. After leading Twitter in Asia's most exciting markets (India/SEA/MENA) for 3 yrs, time to move on to new passions #BeenAPrivilege

— Parminder Singh (@parrysingh) November 3, 2016

“After leading Twitter in Asia's most exciting markets (India/SEA/MENA) for 3 yrs, time to move on to new passions,” Singh wrote in his tweet. This tweet was followed by another one, where he notes that the restructuring of his region of sales as one of the reasons for his exit. 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 from the APAC management, to prioritize a more localized approach.

The INSEA/MENA region is now split with MENA aligned to EMEA and INSEA aligned to APAC region. Right time for me to step back.

— Parminder Singh (@parrysingh) November 3, 2016

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.

“Parry felt now is an appropriate time for him to pursue other passions and work on his next adventure to help a content-based startup 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,” Twitter said in a statement regarding Singh’s departure.

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 and remains the key client contact for Indian brand marketers and advertisers.