A distinguished leader in the global software industry, Khandelwal’s 20-year track record spans setting up teams to scaling them up through integrations, acquisitions and growth through partner ecosystems. Khandelwal is acknowledged as a key voice of the IT Industry and a strong advocate of the power of technology to transform lives. He is passionate about startups and supports them through his role as an angel Investor and advisor.

Khandelwal’s core strength is driving an open innovation culture with an entrepreneurial mindset. Over the years, he has closely monitored the global startup scene with a special focus on the blossoming Indian ecosystem. He believes that Indian startups will lead global business innovation, which is why he became a mentor to key Indian B2B startups. He is an angel investor in startups such as Whatfix, Loadshare, Signzy, Moglix and Fablestreet, and a limited partner to VC firms such as Fireside Centures and Stellaris Venture Partners. He believes private equity can play a major role in helping Indian startups scale, transform and make a mark globally.

It was this passion for nurturing startups that led Khandelwal to set up the SAP Startup Studio, the company’s first ever Startup Accelerator, while he was Managing Director for SAP Labs in India. In this role, he led development facilities in Bangalore, Gurgaon and Pune and reported directly to the Executive Board. He led the 9,700-person research and development organisation of SAP SE in India, focusing on delivering cutting-edge technology innovations for business applications.

Khandelwal’s strength in building a vision and defining an executable roadmap, managing large cross-cultural teams, and establishing and sustaining a highly empowered and innovative workforce transformed SAP Labs India. Under his leadership, it was rated as the best place to work in the country by the Great Place to Work Institute.

Khandelwal was also President of the SAP HANA Enterprise cloud business, leading a 4,650-person global team across 40 countries that helped customers accelerate their business transformation to the cloud. He was tasked with transforming the enterprise cloud services division and rethinking its value proposition to customers. This required leading the team through an organisational change, empowering team members to put the customer first. The SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud transformed into one of the most significant accelerators in SAP’s cloud business and became a secure path for customers to move to SAP’s Public Cloud. This became a critical piece of SAP’s overall business journey.

Recognising his passion for and contribution to startups, ‘The Economic Times’ nominated him to the jury of the prestigious ET Startup Awards 2019. Khandelwal has been recognised by ‘The Economic Times’ as a ‘Young Leader under 40’. The International Business Awards honoured him with a Silver Stevie Award as ‘Executive of the Year in the Computer Software Industry’, recognising his achievements in inspiring corporate innovation and social progress through technology. Khandelwal is is an elected member of Executive Council of NASSCOM.

As a thought leader, he speaks frequently at national and international events on open innovation, cloud technology, digital transformation and inclusion. He has represented SAP at both domestic and global forums, including the World Economic Forum, CeBIT and Cloud Expo.