By Siddhi Mahatole and Bhanvi Satija
Nov 5 (Reuters) – Emma Walmsley has said she wants people around her to challenge her thinking, even if that means disagreeing with her in front of colleagues. It is a management style, she says, that helps prevent CEOs from hearing only what they want to hear.
She will get a chance to test her philosophy in a new industry after HP Inc named the former GSK chief as its next CEO, betting her experience reshaping a sprawling global company can help the PC maker navigate an industry downturn, supply-chain disruptions and rising component costs.
“I explicitly invite the counterview,” she told Semafor in an interview published in April. “I come across as having conviction and an opinion, which I do, but I also am quite comfortable with shifting it if the facts change.”
Walmsley, 57, led GSK from 2017 until December 2025, overseeing the separation of its consumer healthcare business, now called Haleon.
“HP board have secured themselves an excellent executive and leader who is well versed at implementing major transformations,” said Shore Capital analyst Sean Conroy, who said Walmsley had a record of making decisions that benefited shareholders.
Walmsley’s tenure at GSK was not without challenges, with investors periodically questioning the strength of the company’s late-stage drug pipeline. Her surprise departure from the drugmaker was announced in September 2025, when the then-Chief Commercial Officer Luke Miels was named her successor.
At the time, Walmsley defended her legacy.
“As CEO you hope to leave the company you love stronger than you found it, and to prepare for a seamless transition. I’m proud to be doing both,” she wrote on LinkedIn, later telling Semafor that GSK was “completely different” from when she was appointed nine years earlier.
Walmsley had already made one big industry leap. Before joining GSK in 2010, she spent 17 years at French cosmetics giant L’Oreal, holding management and marketing roles in London, Paris, New York and Shanghai and eventually running its consumer products business in China.
AI AT THE EDGE
HP represents another sharp shift, though Walmsley is not entirely a technology outsider.
She has served on Microsoft’s board since 2019, giving her a close view of the company that is at the forefront of AI and cloud computing, and whose Windows operating system is central to HP’s PC business.
Walmsley also embraced AI at GSK, including its use in drug discovery.
That experience could prove relevant as HP bets on AI-enabled PCs and other personal devices.
“HP’s edge AI bet rides on Windows, and she has seen that playbook from the inside,” said Patrick Moorhead, CEO of analyst firm Moor Insights & Strategy.
But soaring memory-chip prices pose a more immediate challenge, raising costs for PC makers and threatening to push up prices.
“Her first problem won’t be AI. It will be memory costs,” Moorhead said.
(Reporting by Siddhi Mahatole, Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Bhanvi Satija in London; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
