Facebook appoints Umang Bedi as India head

Social networking giant Facebook Inc has appointed Umang Bedi as its managing director in India, three months after Kirthiga Reddy stepped down from the post.

Bedi will be responsible for building strategic relationships with top clients and regional agencies in the country, the company said in a statement.

An alumnus of Harvard Business School, Bedi was the managing director of the South Asia region at Adobe before joining Facebook.

Reddy will return to the US to take on a new role at the company's headquarters at Menlo Park, California. She is joining the global accounts team, and will manage a set of global brands and lead the emerging markets efforts.

Bedi will take charge in July while Reddy will start her new role in August, the company said.

Reddy had stepped down from the post in February, a day after Facebook shuttered its Free Basics programme in India, as critics said it violated net neutrality.

Dan Neary, vice president of Asia Pacific at Facebook, said Bedi is a proven business executive to lead the company's business in India. He added that Reddy played a key role in building the company's India business from scratch.

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