Irish manager appointed Director of manufacturing quality at Ford

John Fleming, President, Ford of Europe, is announcing the appointment of Pauline Walsh as Director, Manufacturing Quality, Ford of Europe based in Cologne.

Pauline, 37, a native of Newbridge, Co. Kildare was previously Manufacturing Manager at the Dagenham engine plant in Britain. Prior to that she was Production Manager at the Ford Genk facility in Belgium.

In 2001 Pauline was awarded the title Woman of the Year by the prestigious European trade publication Automotive News Europe. In the same year Irish Motor Industry magazine named her Maxol Industry Person of the Month. She was conferred with an honorary fellowship of the Institute of Engineers of Ireland in 2004.

A graduate in Mechanical Engineering from UCD, Pauline's illustrious career has included spells at Esso UK, Exxon in the US, ABB in Switzerland and Warner Lambert in Cork, who she joined on completion of her MBA in Lausanne in the mid-90s. She was recruited by Fork to take up the position of Quality Manager at Ford's Cologne plant in 1999. Her subsequent move to Genk coincided with the launch of the new Ford Mondeo.

The quality of vehicles has a very high priority within Ford. It is something the company spends a lot of time and effort on, with ever-increasing expectations of quality levels, comments Pauline. I am looking forward to working with our various manufacturing sites to further improve the quality of our vehicles produced in Europe.

Pauline recently gave birth to her second child.