- Diversity and Inclusion
- Our People
- Working Culture
Together we fly - meet four powerhouse women in air freight!
Today, it’s time to showcase the power of women in air freight!
Laura Drescher, Barno Kholikova, Sigourney Djokovic, and Mariana Hermont run our air freight business every day. Dive in and read how the four of them live our air freight business from different perspectives.
Mariana Hermont: Strategy and Development Manager for Global Air Freight
Mariana ensures that our customers can track their air freight shipments at all times. She manages the real-time visibility product around the world, enhancing shipment transparency to the customers. She is in daily contact with the sales team to present the solution to customers, with Marketing to raise awareness of the innovative systems, and with the IoT team to improve the technical platform features based on customer needs.
"The days I enjoy the most are the ones when we get to test new devices with cutting-edge technologies, because the IoT world is very dynamic and innovative, and many companies are eager to offer new solutions."
Mariana also enjoys interacting with different regions, as it is a privilege to enrich her perspective with new ideas and input every day. For Mariana, it is great to interact with people of diverse cultures, ages, genders, and opinions:
Diversity is essential in logistics as it enhances perspectives and supports our customers to the fullest.
“To be part of a dynamic and international environment company that helps society to address global challenges is truly fulfilling. The company counts with talented women who contribute to our success, and we want to increase their number as we aim to remain global leaders in our field.”
Sigourney Djokovic: Special Accounts Supervisor
Sigourney Djokovic's days get busy when her customers want to send a lot of air freight import shipments. Then she has to make sure all the shipments arrive on time and without problems to keep the customer happy.
"I like the speed of the airfreight business. It only takes a few days to get a shipment from A to B. In my position, I have to react quickly when problems arise, for example, if the carrier didn't pick up the shipment, I have to find a quick solution. This makes my job exciting every day!”
Although Sigourney thought air freight was primarily a man's business, she was taught otherwise.
I saw women driving forklifts, handling heavy loads, doing the same work as men.
And it was a woman who was the most important role model in Sigourney's career: her manager at a warehouse in Houston, Texas. "When I met my manager, she was in charge of all the operations in the warehouse. She listened to me and supported me in all kinds of situations. This inspired me to become a great logistics forwarder.”
Barno Kholikova: Business Application Engineer in Processes and Systems
Barno supports the global air freight business from technical and process transformation perspectives. She joined DB SCHENKER as an International Management Trainee in Business Architecture in April of 2022.
In different phases of her traineeship, she worked in Key Account Management for the Healthcare vertical market in DB SCHENKER Singapore, helped to deploy a new global DB SCHENKER system for Air Import across different branches and gateways in the USA, and developed a solution concept for ocean-born portable warehousing in the scope of a Warehouse of the Future trainee project. As a Business Application Engineer in Global Air Freight, she is now responsible for the further development, training, and testing of technical, IT-related applications.
"We build an invisible bridge between the business and IT by documenting, prioritizing, and communicating business requests and requirements from different regions to our IT partners. That’s why I love working with people from different departments and career backgrounds so that we can put together one solution, a collective output that combines individual input of different stakes and parties. Of course, this all happens with the aim of bringing the best value to our customers in the first place via faster shipment processing power and enhanced tracking capacity!”
Barno appreciates working with colleagues from different cultural and professional backgrounds and living diversity within her teams.
Different cultures have different ways of thinking.
"And that’s great, especially in solution-driven areas of work because this way no stone is left unturned when working on challenging projects that require thinking outside of the box”. She also believes that there is a huge space for women in Logistics and Freight Forwarding to grow and the awareness of this can be achieved by introducing ambassador programs to get that out into the world and inspire others.
Laura Drescher: Global Air Freight Revenue Manager
Ever since her first flight at age 16, Laura knew she wanted to work at the airport. And her wish came true: Laura works at Frankfurt Airport in Germany. As a revenue manager, she is the interface between sales and the air cargo product. Every day, she has to figure out how to solve customers’ needs while keeping an eye on the market development. In doing so, she has to keep two different perspectives in mind: the needs of the customer and the requirements of the DB SCHENKER management.
"The biggest challenge for me is keeping track of all the issues. There are a lot of short-term requests that I have to deal with. Bringing together all the external and internal requirements, dealing with new customers every week, and creating solutions that meet everyone's needs is what makes my job so exciting.”
Alongside her full-time job, Laura has just finished her studies in Supply Chain Management and Logistics – for her, a great opportunity to be more visible as a woman in the logistics industry.
"I have never been put off by the fact that I deal mostly with men, especially in operations."
I think as women we need to be more present in leadership roles.
"This is also very important for younger women. My wish would be that it is no longer an issue whether we have a man or a woman in a position because it is natural that women do the same jobs as men.”
As role models in our air freight business, we have to say a big THANK YOU to Sigourney, Mariana, Barno, and Laura for being such incredible women who work with passion and make it possible to move our air cargo.