(March 27): Meta Platforms Inc is losing its senior-most business executive for the Asia-Pacific, an industry veteran who shepherded some of the social media company’s largest international markets over a decade-long tenure.

Dan Neary, the company’s vice-president for the region, assumed the role in 2013 and oversaw the rapid expansion of the company’s user base from Australia to Greater China and Southeast Asia. The Singapore-based executive announced his departure in an internal post. He left for personal reasons, a Meta spokesperson said Thursday.

“I feel privileged to have had the role leading Meta’s business across Apac,” Neary told Bloomberg News in response to a query. “I plan to stay on for a few months while a successor is named and to help with the transition,” he added. “After that, I will take a break and see what is next.”

Facebook in particular expanded rapidly in Asia during Neary’s tenure, said Simon Kemp, chief analyst for DataReportal, a library of reports on global digital behaviour.

Ten years ago, the region accounted for some 35% of Facebook’s reported global advertising reach, Kemp said. Today that’s grown to just under 50%, or about 1.1 billion accounts, he said. Instagram and WhatsApp expanded rapidly across Asia during that time. In some countries such as Thailand, Facebook became the go-to platform for communications and media consumption.

Before joining Meta, Neary was vice-president and general manager of global market development at Skype, and vice-president of emerging markets at eBay Inc, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Neary’s departure — announced just a day after he posted about Meta’s latest AI solutions for clients — comes as the company seeks to compete with OpenAI and DeepSeek in a fast-moving new sphere.

Chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg has told investors he anticipates eventually spending hundreds of billions of dollars on AI infrastructure. The company is applying the technology across its apps and business units, from Instagram and Facebook to virtual reality glasses.

Neary brought the company’s business in the region to “incredible heights, delivering consistently strong results over the years,” the Meta spokesperson said.

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