Twitter's Yu Sasamoto takes on APAC as Maya Hari steps up to global role

Twitter's Asia-Pacific vice president Maya Hari is taking on a new global role as VP of global strategy and operations.

Hari will continue to be based in Singapore, and will lead a global team. Her commercial role will encompass product strategy, operations, innovation and automation to enable commercial and content partnerships efforts around the world.

She has been leading Twitter's APAC business, excluding Japan and South Korea, for the past four years. Prior to this, she was managing director of Southeast Asia and India and a senior director of product strategy and sales.

I’m thrilled to share that I will be taking on a new global role at Twitter as VP, Global Strategy & Operations. I will be based in Singapore while leading a global team focused on customers and revenue product strategy, innovation and automation to enable our commercial efforts.

— Maya Hari (@maya_hari) April 22, 2021

As Hari steps up, Twitter has decided to bring its Japan, South Korea and Asia Pacific operations together into a unified regional structure that will be headed by Yu Sasamoto.

Sasamoto has been leading the social network's Japan and South Korea offices for the past seven years. He will take up leadership of the unified JAPAC region from May 1, and is set to move to Twitter's APAC headquarters in Singapore.

He and will continue to serve as the general manager of Twitter Japan and head of Twitter Client Solutions in Japan until his successor is hired in Tokyo.

The JAPAC region will cover Australia, Greater China, Japan, India, New Zealand, Southeast Asia and South Korea.

I'm so excited to share with you about my new position at Twitter. I have been overseeing our advertising business in Japan and South Korea, and from May 1st, I'm going to step into an expanded regional role covering our advertising business across our new unified JAPAC region.

— yu-san (@yusasamoto) April 22, 2021

Sasamoto said: "I'm thrilled and honoured to be tasked with leading the powerhouse that is the new unified JAPAC region for Twitter, and working closely with our world-class talent across the region. Not only does Asia boast a rich, diverse culture and society, it also breathes innovation and vibrancy—and being at Twitter means we get to be on the pulse of everything that's happening. I'm looking forward to bringing more people, communities, brands and partners to Twitter as we build on the incredible business momentum from Maya's leadership across the region."

Hari commented: "We are delighted that Yu-san will be stepping into this expanded role—it is a testament to everything he's achieved at Twitter to date, leading Japan to become among our largest revenue markets globally."

She added: "In my new role, I am excited to work with him and our other international leaders to grow our businesses around the world and find new opportunities for Twitter to serve the global public conversation."

Prior to Twitter, Sasamoto served as CEO of MTV Japan, managing executive officer of Microsoft's Greater Asia-Pacific region and COO of restaurant search engine and review site ASKU (which he founded) for two years.

Hari has also been with Twitter for seven years. She previously spent more than 15 years in the digital media, mobile and ecommerce industries across the US and in Asia-Pacific for brands such as Samsung, Google, Microsoft and Cisco.