Photo: Sabrina Maas (L) with fellow Mars Associate Marine Le Quere (R)
At Mars we celebrate International Women’s Day all year, and this profile of Sabrina Maas of Mars Food & Nutrition highlights Associates like her who are pursuing exciting careers and making a remarkable difference every day for women at Mars.
The job title “Global Industrial Engineer Supply Strategy” and phrase “champion for a more inclusive and diverse workforce” might not seem like a typical pairing — but a conversation with Sabrina Maas will change your mind.
By day, Sabrina is an industrial engineer for our food business, working on brands like Ben’s Original™, Tasty Bite® and Dolmio®, and she’s the co-founder of the Mars Associate Resource Group (ARG) Women in Supply Europe. ARGs are groups that bring together Associates with similar interests, and Sabrina dedicates time outside her daily responsibilities to make a difference in an area she’s passionate about: inspiring women to join, stay and grow in the supply field. But when she started her career at Mars around 10 years ago, global supply wasn’t top of mind.
“I studied chemistry at university, and my first role at Mars was on the engineering team working on sustainability,” says Sabrina. “After that, I stepped into the world of supply and have been here ever since — even through moves to roles across Mars business segments.”
Sabrina says while her journey to her current role hasn’t been a straight shot, she wouldn’t want it any other way.
“My experience from varied roles across our different businesses helps me bring a broader strategic context to my current role,” says Sabrina.
“I focus on two areas in supply: global processes, which support how we deploy our strategy and how and where we choose to invest, and external manufacturing strategy,” says Sabrina. “I look at what our supply network of the future should look like globally — how we work with our supply network to consistently deliver the best product to the consumer —, and I look at where we need new capabilities to support our innovation pipeline across our Food & Nutrition brands.”
Before making the move to Food, Sabrina was a shift manager at the Slough, England, U.K. factory — the only woman out of approximately 20 managers, though she didn’t really think about being the only woman in a male-dominated profession during her time on the job.
“When I moved to our food business, I realized how great it was to connect with other women in the field,” says Sabrina. “Which led to conversations with Marine (Le Quere, a Mars Supply Chain Director located in Belgium) about how cool it would be for women to have a place to talk with other women on different topics.”
So several ago, Sabrina and Marine built the Women in Supply ARG, leading a group of women and allies striving for inclusion and gender balance in the male dominated field.
The ARG Women in Supply Europe has grown from 15 members to more than 600 across all Mars segments! In fact, Sabrina and Marine won a 2022 Make the Difference(Opens a new window) award, our signature program that recognizes Associates from around the world who’ve delivered extraordinary impact to bring us closer to the world we want tomorrow.
“I’m passionate about I&D(Opens a new window), so I really value the emphasis and support Mars gives to ARGs to make Mars more inclusive,” says Sabrina.
From chemistry to sustainability engineering to global supply chain, Sabrina is an excellent example of how our Associates are making a difference today and every day to create a better world tomorrow in Supply and beyond.
