Sabine Isenbort leads Ford Europe’s vehicle logistics

As director of vehicle logistics and customs Europe at Ford, Sabine Isenbort will be responsible for optimising all finished vehicle flows and ensuring customs compliance across Europe. 

Isenbort has more than two decades of experience in the industry, all of which has been spent at Ford. She first entered the automotive industry in 2003, having graduated from Ford College in Cologne as a trainee within the material planning and logistics department. 

From there, she moved up the ranks to material planning and logistics manager of the engine plant in Cologne in 2007, and went on to become manager of oversea logistics in 2016. In 2022, she stepped into the role of manager of inbound logistics operations and had been serving that position for almost four years, where she was responsible for inbound material flow for all European plants under costs, sustainability, digitalisation, and collaboration objectives. Prior to this, she had also overseen strategy development and operational implementation of Ford’s total logistics costs management.

Within her most recent role, she expressed the need for human-in-the-loop approaches to digitalisation and AI within the automotive supply chain. At ALSC Europe this year, Isenbort highlighted that bridging the gap between generations in the workforce is essential in order to benefit from the expertise of the older generations and technological savviness of the younger ones.

She previously spoke at ALSC Europe in 2024 on our Empowering Women panel, to an audience that included young women and students. There, she advised that being able to shadow a female leader in an organisation provided the opportunity to become more visible in the industry. “The learning curve is never over. You need to think ’I can do it” and be there and be ready for the next step. Keep up to speed with networking, both internally and externally,” she said at the time.

Martina Graser previously led Ford Europe's vehicle logistics and customs team before being promoted in September 2022 to director of material planning and logistics Europe. Since then, Graser has overseen Ford Europe's entire material planning and logistics operations, covering transportation capacity, logistics decarbonisation, and digital transformation.