C-Suite Signals: Dame Emma Walmsley, GlaxoSmithKline.

In this episode of C-Suite Signals, Jordan and Elizabeth discuss Dame Emma Walmsley's leadership style, the challenges facing the pharma industry, and how she’s strategically shaped GSK’s public narrative.

Each episode dives into the career paths, management styles, and current activities of today’s top business leaders, giving listeners a front-row seat to leadership in action.

Dame Emma Walmsley.

Dame Emma Walmsley is CEO of GlaxoSmithKline. Before taking on the role in 2017, she worked for L'Oréal for 17 years, marking a bold pivot from consumer beauty to pharmaceutical leadership.

Walmsley has led a significant transformation of the company, focusing on streamlining operations, prioritising innovation in vaccines and specialty medicines, and ultimately spinning off the consumer healthcare division into a separate entity, Haleon, now known as the world’s biggest standalone consumer healthcare company.

Her leadership has marked a shift toward a more agile, science-driven pharmaceutical business with a clear emphasis on R&D productivity and long-term growth.

Under her leadership, Emma Walmsley has been consistently recognised among the world’s most powerful women in business, earning spots on Forbes’ World’s 100 Most Powerful Women list and being praised for breaking ground as the first woman to lead a major global pharmaceutical company.

Transcript.

Jordan (J): Welcome to C suite signals, the podcast where we break down how today's top CEOs are showing up in public. I'm Jordan Greenaway, CEO at Profile, and on each episode, I'm joined by a colleague from the profile team to unpack the leadership signals that matter.

In 10 minutes or less, we assess one high profile CEOs public profile and ask, are they building trust, showing leadership and cutting through the noise?

So let's get into it. 

J: On today's episode, we're talking about Emma Walmsley, or Dame Emma Walmsley, I should say, who's CEO of GSK.

And I'm joined today by Elizabeth Lorraine, who leads on our healthcare clients. Elizabeth, thank you for joining me.

Elizabeth (E): Thanks for having me, Jordan.

J: So, before we get into the details of Emma's profile, which I think is very interesting actually, let's just give the listeners a little bit of background on her, her role and GSK.

E: Of course.

So, Emma Walmsley is a very fascinating figure. She became CEO of GSK in 2017. This was after running its consumer health division. Her appointment to GSK made her the first woman to lead a top pharma company. But she's also quite an unconventional choice for the role, because she came from L'Oreal after quite a few years.

She took over at moment when GSK had been quite stagnated. So, their R&D was underperforming, trust was shaky, the culture was quite bureaucratic. And what makes her stand out is her willingness to confront those reputational realities head on.

From a communications standpoint, that's incredibly rare and incredibly powerful. She didn't try to spin GSK challenges away. Instead, she acknowledged them, which made her a subsequent strategy feel honest and credible.

J: I have a lot of empathy with Emma Walmsley, because I think the task is difficult. She was placed in that role as a bit of a turnaround CEO. And more than that, a turnaround CEO in an industry where a turnaround can take 10, 20, years.

You know, the drug development timeline is not next quarter. It's not in a year. Some R&D you do today in drug development won't actually realize it's kind of investment value until 10 years ahead of time. And I think that is a unique challenge.

How do you communicate, as an executive, a big picture strategy when there are so many kind of short term demands?

And I think she's managed to square that circle quite well.

In her recent interview with the times, she was speaking about strategy I think 2034. She's not over committing to the short term, and saying, kind of, come with me on the journey. That's the way I would say she's dealt with what I would call kind of scrutiny.

E: Absolutely. And I'd have to agree with a lot of the points you've just made.

Walmsley has faced criticism from day one, particularly because she didn't come from a research background. And partly, let's be honest, because she's a woman in one of the most male dominated industries out there.

One of the most impressive things is how Walmsley has handled every criticism not with deflection, but with consistency.

When questioned about her credentials, she's redirected to results. When analysts doubted the pipeline, she gave them specific data and timelines. It's a masterclass in letting transparency do the talking.

Credibility doesn't come from sounding like everyone else, but from owning your own voice. Emma demonstrates how a clear, authentic voice can an anchor entire leadership narrative, even in a highly skeptical environment.

J: Completely agree with that, and we've seen this, I think, principally in the US over the last 12 months. And I think communicating in that environment can be very difficult.

When you read Emma's content and when you read interviews with her, it's striking how she manages to articulate her point of view, her story and mission for the company in very simple language. And I think that's something that that all CEOs can learn from.

E: 100%, I agree with that.

I mean, I think if you spoke to any communications professional, they probably say transparency is pretty key in any industry. But I think the big thing that Walmsley did is that she didn't try to paper over GSK's challenges. In fact, she put them front and center.

She told investors, we need to perform better scientifically and commercially. From a communications perspective, that's the gold standard.

You can't build trust without giving people something to test. She didn't just say the right things. She built the systems, KPIs and cultural expectations to back it up.

And that's where trust comes from. People inside and outside the business could see that she wasn't just performing for headlines, she was generally steering change.

J: That's really interesting. That's prompted an additional thought in my head. Do you have any kind of lessons or takeaways from her profile?

E: I've probably got three big takeaways.

So, the first one would be to own the problem early by leading with the message. The instinct is often for companies to protect reputation, but you don't want to wait until the media or investors can frame your story for you. Walmsley, in particular, showed that naming the issue gives you power over it.

The second one would probably be make transparency practical. It's not just about saying the right thing on a podcast or in a press release. It's in the actions made over time, about structure, metrics and decision making.

And then, I think the final one for me would probably be trust builds over time. One hard truth at a time.

Every moment she said we're not where we need to be, she's actually earned more belief in her ability to get GSK there. Over time, consistently becomes credibility. Walmsley wasn't swayed by trends or trying to rebrand every quarter.

That stability, especially in healthcare and pharma, communicates competence and confidence.

J: And on that note, any big headline takeaways for you, Elizabeth. What's the what's the take home message?

E: It would probably be that Walmsley reminds us that trust and performance aren't separate. They're intertwined. By being clear about what GSK needed to fix and following through that action, she's a powerful example of what happens when communications are treated as a leadership function, not just as reactive one.

She's built GSK story by being honest. That's a lot for a lot of companies to learn from.

J: Thank you, Elizabeth.

And that's it for this episode of C-Suite Signals where leadership meets credibility. And if you're a CEO ready to lead from the front or want your leadership team to stand out, get in touch with us at Profile.

Until next time, stay visible.