Women in management in motor manufacturing are rare, and late converts to the industry, rarer still. Kildare-born engineer, Pauline Walsh, is both, writes Olive Keogh

It would be possible to count the number of senior women managers in the European motor industry on two hands. Those who make it tend to hold corporate affairs or sales/marketing jobs and women in senior manufacturing positions are the exceptions.

Newbridge-born engineer Pauline Walsh (34) is one of these exceptions and what makes her career path even more unusual is the fact that she only joined Ford of Europe (and the motor industry) 18 months ago.

Pauline Walsh was headhunted by Ford when she was studying for an MBA at the prestigious IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland. Ford offered her a job and so did the pharmaceuticals giant, Warner Lambert. She took the Warner Lambert position because it was based in Cork and she was anxious to come home after living abroad for some time. However, six months later Ford came calling again and made Walsh an offer she couldn't refuse.

After six months spent shadowing some of the company's top management, Walsh was appointed as quality manager at Ford's Cologne plant. Within a few months, she was promoted and moved to Belgium where she is now production manager for the Ford Mondeo.

Pauline Walsh was educated at the Holy Family school in Newbridge and at UCD where she studied mechanical engineering. As production manager at the Genk plant, she manages a team of 2,300 people. She says that having no previous experience in the motor industry has meant a sharp learning curve, but that her training in engineering was invaluable.

"My engineering skills provided a sound base from which to go forward," she says. "One of the reasons I did the MBA was to widen that base and to gain experience of other sectors and aspects of management." Pauline Walsh's working day begins at 7 a.m. and ends at around 7.30 p.m. Once a week she goes home for dinner and comes back to the plant at around 11 p.m. to spend a few hours with those on the night shift. "Long hours go with the job and as I love the job, I accept the hours," she says.

Any free time Pauline has is spent with her husband and young son with visits to the gym squeezed into the gaps.