Chief Program Manager, Product Engineering & Autism at Work Ambassador, SAP
Speaker Bio
Jose H. Velasco Leads the SAP Autism at Work program in the United States. Mr. Velasco’s 30-year Information Technology career spans private and public sectors and companies ranging from startups to Fortune 50 enterprises. During his tenure of 20 years at SAP, Mr. Velasco has occupied positions in product management, consulting, development, strategy, go-to-market, and diversity functions.
Mr. Velasco participated as a panelist at the United Nations World Autism Awareness Day, testified before U.S. Congress on the “Global Challenge of Autism” and collaborated on the topic of Corporate Social Innovation at the World Economic Forum. He has presented the topic of autism in the workplace to private, public, educational, and 3rd sector audiences in conferences around the world. Mr. Velasco was the recipient of the 2015 Employer of the Year Award by the Department of Rehabilitation of the State of California, The Brighter Futures Occupational Wellness Award by the Philadelphia DBHDS, SpArc Philadelphia Employer of the Year Award, on behalf of SAP, the 2015 Arc Catalyst Employer of the Year award and the 2016 Ruderman Family Foundation Best in Business Awards. Through his work at SAP Autism at Work, Mr. Velasco and his team have been featured in more than 1,800 global, national, and local publications and TV/Radio segments including the Wall Street Journal, CBS Sunday Morning, NBC, Fox, Inc. Magazine, and Forbes among others.
In 2016, Mr. Velasco launched the first Autism at Work Summit, a conference series designed to foster collaboration between private and public sectors, academia, government, schools, philanthropists, civil societies, and the autism community with the ultimate purpose of improving opportunities for individuals with autism in the labor market.
Mr. Velasco is a board member of The Arc, the largest national community-based organization in the United States advocating for and serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. He holds a Master’s Degree in Technology Commercialization from McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin and B.S. in Computer Science from Tecnologico de Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico.