HP names Emma Walmsley as CEO amid chip shortage and PC market downturn

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HP names Emma Walmsley CEO

Highlights

HP named former GSK CEO and Microsoft board member Emma Walmsley as chief executive Wednesday amid a memory-chip shortage and PC market downturn.
Walmsley, who led GSK through the spin-off of its consumer unit and activist investor pressures, replaces interim CEO Bruce Broussard after his tenure since February.
Her experience in operational leadership, portfolio restructuring, and technology oversight positions her to address HP's supply constraints and subdued PC market demand.

Leadership transition and executive background

As reported by Reuters, HP named former GSK chief executive and Microsoft board member Emma Walmsley as CEO on Wednesday, putting her in charge as the company faces a memory-chip shortage that has raised prices and deepened an industry downturn.

Walmsley takes over from Bruce Broussard, who has served as HP's interim CEO since February. At 57, she brings a long international management record after earlier roles across Europe, the U.S. and Asia.

Born in Barrow-in-Furness in northwestern England, Walmsley is the daughter of former Royal Navy officer Robert Walmsley, who later served as the UK's chief of defence procurement. She attended St Swithun's School in Winchester and studied classics and modern languages at Oxford University.

Before joining GSK, Walmsley spent 17 years at L'Oreal in marketing and management positions in London, Paris, New York and Shanghai. She later became general manager of L'Oreal's consumer products business in China, overseeing brands including L'Oreal Paris, Maybelline and Garnier.

Track record at GSK and relevance for HP

Walmsley joined GSK in 2010 and became chief executive in April 2017, the first woman to lead the British drugmaker. During her tenure, she oversaw the spin-off of GSK's consumer healthcare arm, now Haleon, and pushed to strengthen the group's medicines and vaccines operations, although some investors questioned the depth of its pipeline.

She also led GSK through the COVID-19 pandemic, Unilever's failed bid for its consumer assets and pressure from activist shareholders Elliott and Bluebell. Walmsley left GSK at the end of 2025 after nearly nine years as CEO, at a time when major drugmakers were facing pressure from U.S. tariff policies, scrutiny over medicine pricing and the need to offset coming patent-expiry revenue losses with new product launches.

Walmsley has served on Microsoft's board for seven years and was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2020 for services to the pharmaceutical industry and business. That mix of operational leadership, portfolio restructuring and board-level technology exposure is likely to shape HP's response to supply constraints and weak demand in the PC market.

Executive pay trends and tightening remuneration governance in South Africa were the focus of our earlier article. We highlighted how incentive awards for CEOs and CFOs at JSE Top 200 companies rose far faster than fixed pay, alongside new Companies Act rules introducing pay-ratio disclosure and binding shareholder votes that can restrict directors’ roles on remuneration committees.

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