Facebook’s India head Kirthiga Reddy has decided to quit the role, nearly six years after she joined the social media company as its first employee. She said that she has begun to explore new opportunities at the Facebook headquarters at Menlo Park.

Though the timing of the move comes close to the controversy surrounding Free Basics, company insiders said that Reddy’s decision is not linked to the debacle.

Facebook had to withdraw its Free Basics campaign after the telecom regulator found it against the principles of net neutrality. In a post on Facebook, Reddy said, “When my family relocated to India, we knew that we would move back to the US some day. It’s a bittersweet moment to share that the return timeframe is coming up in the next 6-12 months. Our two daughters start high school and middle school this coming year — which serves as a natural transition point to make this move back.”

Under Reddy, Facebook has grown rapidly in India, making it the second largest operations after the US, with nearly 150 million active users.

“I could not be more excited about where the business is in India, where we are going, and what’s to come. Over the last six years, starting as the first employee for Facebook in India, I have had the privilege to be part of our amazing growth journey – from our operations in Hyderabad to being a business partner for our clients, as they build their brands and grow their business in this mobile-first world,” she wrote in her post.

To help choose successor

She said it will be business-as-usual over the next 6-12 months, including searching for a successor in India.

“I have also begun to explore new opportunities at Facebook back at Menlo Park. As I do this, I continue to experience the same ‘aha’ moments as I did in my first few weeks at Facebook – that our mission is so much bigger, the opportunities are so much larger, and each facebooker is so much more jaw-dropping-inspiring than one thinks possible.”

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