Key facts
- HP Inc named Emma Walmsley, former GSK chief, as its next CEO.
- Walmsley led GSK from 2017 until December 2025 and oversaw the separation of its consumer healthcare business, now Haleon.
- Walmsley spent 17 years at L'Oreal before joining GSK in 2010, eventually running its consumer products business in China.
- Walmsley has served on Microsoft's board since 2019, giving her a view of the company whose Windows system is central to HP's PC business.
- Shore Capital analyst Sean Conroy said the HP board secured an executive well versed at implementing major transformations.
- Moor Insights & Strategy CEO Patrick Moorhead said Walmsley's first problem will be memory costs, not AI.
HP Inc named Emma Walmsley, the former chief executive of GSK, 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, Reuters reported on November 5, 2026.
Walmsley, 57, led GSK from 2017 until December 2025, overseeing the separation of its consumer healthcare business, now called Haleon. Her departure from the drugmaker was announced in September 2025, when then-Chief Commercial Officer Luke Miels was named her successor. At the time, Walmsley defended her legacy in a LinkedIn post, writing: "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 later told Semafor that GSK was "completely different" from when she was appointed nine years earlier.
Her tenure at GSK was not without challenges, with investors periodically questioning the strength of the company's late-stage drug pipeline. 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.
Walmsley is not entirely a technology outsider. She has served on Microsoft's board since 2019, giving her a close view of the company at the forefront of AI and cloud computing, and whose Windows operating system is central to HP's PC business. She also embraced AI at GSK, including its use in drug discovery.
"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 he said rising 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.
Shore Capital analyst Sean Conroy said: "HP board have secured themselves an excellent executive and leader who is well versed at implementing major transformations," adding that Walmsley had a record of making decisions that benefited shareholders. Walmsley has said she wants people around her to challenge her thinking. "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."