V. R. Ferose is Senior Vice President and Head of the SAP Institute for Product and Engineering in Silicon Valley, where he leads efforts to develop the next generation of product and engineering leaders. Over the past seven years, he has built the Institute into one of SAP’s flagship learning organizations, bringing together global experts, innovators, and practitioners to tackle some of the world’s most complex challenges.

During a career spanning more than two decades at SAP, Ferose has held several leadership positions. He led the development of the Coldplay Music of the Spheres World Tour App, a sustainability-focused initiative designed to help reduce the environmental footprint of one of the world’s largest concert tours. The app surpassed one million downloads and received widespread recognition, including coverage in The Washington Post. Earlier, as head of SAP Globalization Services, he pioneered innovative business models that enabled the global adoption of SAP products and services. He also served as Managing Director of SAP Labs India, transforming the organization into a leading innovation hub and helping it earn its first Great Place to Work certification in India. Two of his leadership initiatives—creating a high-performance workplace culture and founding SAP’s Autism at Work program—have been documented as Harvard Business School case studies.

A passionate advocate for inclusion, Ferose founded SAP’s pioneering Autism at Work program, which has become a global benchmark for neurodiversity hiring and workplace inclusion. Beyond SAP, he established the India Inclusion Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing disability inclusion through initiatives such as the India Inclusion Summit, Inclusion Fellowship, Art for Inclusion, and the nationwide campaign Everyone Is Good at Something.

Ferose is also an author, columnist, and lifelong bibliophile. His books include Shelf Aware: A Love Affair with Books, The Invisible Majority: India’s Abled Disabled, GIFTED, Innovating the World, and the award-winning graphic novels GRIT: The Major Story and GRIT: The Vishwas Story. He writes the bi-weekly column FLYLEAF for The New Indian Express and frequently speaks on leadership, inclusion, innovation, and purpose at global conferences and universities.

He serves on the boards of Heyday Books and the Grabhorn Institute in California and has previously served on the boards of several nonprofit organizations. A graduate of the National Institute of Technology, Warangal, he has also completed executive education programs at Yale, Harvard, and Stanford. His contributions to business, inclusion, and social impact have earned him numerous honors, including recognition as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and one of India’s Top 40 Under 40 by The Economic Times and Spencer Stuart.