Zip Taps Canva’s Former Global Head of IT as GM of AI

Seasoned IT and procurement leader Michael Denari brings firsthand experience building one of the world’s most advanced enterprise AI programs

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Zip, the leading AI platform for enterprise procurement, today announced the hire of Michael Denari as General Manager of AI. Denari joins from Canva, where as Global Head of IT he built and scaled the company’s enterprise AI strategy across a 5,000-person global organization. In his new role, he will lead Zip’s AI business end-to-end, including GTM strategy, revenue, customer success, and internal AI transformation, as well as work closely with product and engineering teams on AI product development.

“We’re entering a moment where every enterprise is facing pressure to show real ROI from AI, and most are still figuring out where to place their bets,” said Rujul Zaparde, co-founder and CEO of Zip. “Michael has lived this problem from the inside. He’s built world-class AI programs, and he understands exactly what it takes for AI to deliver outcomes that actually change how a business operates. That’s the bar we hold ourselves to at Zip, and it’s why we wanted him here.”

Denari comes to Zip with a rare combination of credentials: he built and led Canva’s procurement function before pivoting to create and scale the company’s global IT organization, a team of 110 people responsible for enterprise technology, compliance & controls, and AI transformation. Over the past three years, he drove AI initiatives that reworked core business processes at Canva, from automated internal support and sales enablement to AI-assisted performance reviews and procurement compliance agents. He also established Canva as Zip’s first enterprise customer when the company launched its procurement orchestration platform in 2021.

“Procurement is the highest-ROI opportunity most organizations have consistently underestimated, and I’ve spent the last three years on the front lines of enterprise AI learning exactly why,” said Denari. “I’m joining Zip at an important moment as AI is accelerating real business impact and I believe Zip is strongly positioned to win. That’s the simplest way I can put it. Zip is going to be at the center of every CFO’s AI story.”

In his role as GM of AI, Denari will oversee Zip’s AI business, define and execute the company’s AI GTM playbook, and partner closely with product, engineering, and marketing teams to ensure customers see transformative outcomes from AI deployment, not just adoption. He will also lead Zip’s internal AI transformation, accelerating applications of AI agents across business functions.

Denari previously created and scaled the procurement function at Procore Technologies prior to their IPO.

About Zip

Zip is the leading AI platform for enterprise procurement. Through one platform, Zip unifies how companies purchase – replacing fragmented tools and manual processes with intelligent orchestration that procurement teams and employees actually want to use. Zip is the only procurement orchestration platform with full intake-to-pay capabilities and has the most widely deployed AI agents in enterprise procurement. Zip has delivered over $6 billion in customer savings and powers modern procurement for hundreds of global enterprises, including Anthropic, AMD, Discover, Dollar Tree, OpenAI, T-Mobile, and more. Visit www.ziphq.com.