Zip Forward Europe recap: Resilience in the face of risk
AI, risk orchestration, and the path forward for procurement leaders.
Zip’s inaugural Zip Forward Europe event in London was a resounding success, bringing together over 200 procurement and finance leaders from across EMEA.
The energy at 22 Bishopsgate was electric as attendees came together to explore the future of procurement orchestration, against the backdrop of an increasingly volatile global environment.
Keynote announcement: Zip for risk orchestration
The central announcement of the day was Zip for Risk Orchestration, a new solution package integrated into our procurement orchestration platform.
This powerful capability empowers global organizations to streamline supplier risk assessments, automate financial verifications, and stay ahead of compliance obligations. The goal? To help mitigate risks related to fraud, security breaches, and costly enforcement actions, all without slowing down the pace of business.
The announcement couldn’t have been more timely. As security threats and regulatory complexity intensify across global markets, companies are turning to orchestration for a more connected, proactive approach to third-party risk.
“Just as we transformed procurement orchestration, we’re now helping businesses proactively manage regulatory and operational risks worldwide,” said Zip co-founder and CEO Rujul Zaparde on stage at Zip Forward Europe.
That message resonated clearly. As Roque Versace, Zip’s Managing Director for EMEA, put it: “Business resilience begins with procurement resilience.”
You can watch the full Zip Forward Europe keynote here.
Expert procurement insights on stage front and center
The keynote session also featured a powerhouse lineup of speakers from Metro Bank, EcoVadis, and Invesco, each offering their perspective on the evolving role of procurement.
A standout moment came from Clare Cassano, Head of Procurement Strategy at Invesco, who drove home the point that bringing more spend under management directly strengthens supplier governance.
“Effective supplier risk management begins with comprehensive spend visibility and control,” Clare said.
“By implementing Zip to drive more spend under management, we’re building a foundation for better supplier oversight. It allows us to make more informed decisions in an increasingly complex regulatory landscape.”
Advisory roundtables and workshops kept attendees engaged
After lunch, attendees joined a series of expert-led roundtables and workshops hosted by Zip’s Advisory team.
A roundtable featuring customers from AppsFlyer, Lighthouse, Camunda, and others showcased how companies across industries are using Zip to drive measurable business value through automation, visibility, and operational speed.
In an interactive workshop, Jason Moore, Zip’s Head of Enterprise Transformation (and former Head of Procurement at Discover Financial), explored the “art of the possible” in modern procurement transformation.
Meanwhile, Zip leaders Colin Glazier and Michael Rooney led sessions on re-engineering procurement workflows for AI-powered orchestration.
Thought leadership on display: how to fix data for the AI era
A true highlight came from the candid and compelling session titled 'Procurement Unfiltered', featuring James Meades and Susan Walsh, two of the most unflinching voices in procurement transformation.
Their talk zeroed in on one of the most persistent and underestimated blockers in the age of AI: dirty data.
James Meads offered up a refreshing take: “AI will help make procurement fun again, because it’ll handle the drudgery. It frees up category managers to actually do category management instead of chasing down spend data and cleaning up spreadsheets.”
Susan Walsh, known as “The Classification Guru,” drove the point home: “You can't automate chaos. You need to know where your dirty data lives, what's causing it, and most importantly, who's responsible.”
She emphasized how orchestration tools can help surface and tackle these data issues head-on, but ultimately, success requires accountability at the human level.
You can watch James and Susan’s full keynote here.
Dr. Elouise Epstein on Procurement 4.0 and the rise of agentic AI
Closing the day was an inspiring keynote from Dr. Elouise Epstein, Partner at Kearney, titled ‘Bringing order to the chaos: Orchestration in the new AI era’.
She framed the current moment as the dawn of Procurement 4.0, a new era defined by agentic AI, composable solutions, and the need for orchestration as connective tissue between tools, data, and strategy.
While emerging technologies promise to reshape traditional procurement software, Dr. Epstein reminded the audience that more than 80% of digital transformations still fail, often due to a lack of alignment between tech, process, and people.
To succeed, she said, procurement leaders will need to cultivate new skills like data literacy, critical thinking, and design thinking, alongside platforms that bring order to complexity. And of course, agentic AI is going to be the key ingredient bringing procurement into the future.
You can watch Dr. Epstein’s full keynote here.
Zip’s continued growth in EMEA
The success of Zip Forward Europe marks another milestone in our rapid growth across the region. Since opening our London office in 2024, Zip has grown our EMEA team by over 400% and doubled our customer base in just one year.
This growth is a reflection of the region’s appetite for smarter, faster procurement, along with our commitment to delivering solutions that lets business flow.
We’re proud to have launched Zip for Risk Orchestration at such a pivotal moment, and we remain committed to helping our customers build resilience, intelligence, and confidence into every supplier relationship.
Stay connected with us for more insights, and we’ll see you at the next Zip Forward!
