Conversations about diversity in procurement often focus on supplier programmes and external commitments. Fewer people discuss what diversity looks like inside the function itself: who organisations hire, promote, and sponsor into senior roles.
We spoke to Saffron Demel Espeute, a senior procurement professional and founder of Black in Procurement. She explains what’s driving the representation gap at senior levels and what organisations can practically do to close it.
Founding Black in Procurement
I started my procurement career in 2019. There were Black professionals and senior figures in the profession, but I couldn’t find a space to connect with them easily beyond LinkedIn — nowhere to build a mentoring relationship or seek guidance.
When I speak to other Black professionals in procurement, I hear the same thing. It’s not an absence of people — it’s an absence of connection. That’s what led me to found Black in Procurement in 2021. I wanted a space where Black professionals could find each other, learn from each other, and see themselves reflected in the profession at every level. Alongside my day job, I run it as a community focused on connection, education, and inspiration.
What Black in Procurement Stands For
Black in Procurement is a UK-based professional network for Black professionals in procurement and supply chain. We exist to connect, educate, and inspire. Our goal is to make the profession more accessible and visible, whether someone is just starting out or progressing into senior roles. We do that through community building, a mentoring programme pairing professionals across experience levels, and spaces where people can share openly.
BIP is different: the community built it, for the community. It isn’t a corporate initiative or a diversity programme, it’s procurement professionals choosing to support each other.
Barriers to Senior Procurement Roles
Visibility and access. If you can’t see people who look like you at senior levels, it’s harder to believe those roles are within reach. It’s also harder to find the mentors and sponsors who can help you get there. That reflects a real structural gap in who has access to the informal networks that drive career progression.
Sponsorship goes further than mentoring. It’s someone putting their name behind yours in a room you’re not in. Black professionals are often over-mentored and under-sponsored — given advice, but not actively advocated for when opportunities arise.
These barriers are structural, not personal. It isn’t the responsibility of individuals to dismantle them. The work needs to happen in organisations and in wider society.
The Diversity Say-Do Gap in Procurement
Organisations often cite their supplier diversity programmes or D&I commitments externally. Internally, though, the procurement function often remains largely homogeneous, especially at senior levels.
There’s a tendency to manage diversity externally, through supply chain decisions, rather than live it internally — through who gets hired, promoted, and developed. The two aren’t mutually exclusive, but focusing on one while neglecting the other means organisations overlook internal talent.
Some organisations invest heavily in unconscious bias training and listening sessions. But they don’t follow through with the structural changes that actually shift outcomes: diverse interview panels, transparent promotion criteria, sponsorship programmes, and leadership accountability for representation data.
Practical Steps to Close the Procurement Diversity Gap
Start with the data. An exec I once worked with said “what gets measured gets done,” and that holds true more often than not. Look at your function by level, ethnicity, promotion rate, and attrition. Then look at your progression pipeline, not just your intake — diverse hiring at entry level means nothing if the pathways upward stay closed.
One of the most underestimated steps is diverse interview panels. I experienced this firsthand interviewing for a central government role. Panels there had to be diverse unless there was a specific, documented reason otherwise. Seeing a panel that looked representative of the workforce I was about to join changed the entire experience. When I got the job, I made it my mission to sit on as many panels as I could. I wanted every candidate to feel they were walking into a workforce that was genuinely inclusive, not just on paper.
Finally, invest in and promote your people networks. People with a genuine, lived interest build these communities to reach, support, and develop the people they represent. Organisations can learn an enormous amount from them. But they need to give these networks the resources, platform, and autonomy to do what HR departments don’t always have the bandwidth for. Feature them in recruitment materials, onboarding, and external communications — make them visible before someone even accepts the offer.
Bramwith’s Commitment to DEI in Procurement
Bramwith Consulting is proud to support the conversation Saffron and Black in Procurement are driving. Representation in procurement doesn’t change through external commitments alone — it changes through who organisations hire, promote, and sponsor. This interview is part of our ongoing Leadership Series spotlighting the people shaping the future of procurement and supply chain.
