Leading through transformation: in conversation with Dame Emma Walmsley
Join us for a fireside chat with Dame Emma Walmsley, former CEO of GSK and the first woman to run a major global pharmaceutical company, as she shares insights on leading transformation across industries and organisations through periods of significant change. Drawing on her experience across global companies, from L'Oréal to Microsoft, Walmsley will reflect on how leaders can drive strategic, cultural, and performance change at scale.
Speaker Bio:
GSK CEO and Board Director for 9 years until December 2025, Emma delivered a strategic, performance and cultural transformation of the global biopharma company and a step change in its prospects. Previously Emma was CEO of GSK Consumer Healthcare, then Chaired the Joint Venture and led the demerger, listed as Haleon in 2022.
GSK is a world leader in preventing and treating disease with a new pipeline of specialty medicine and vaccines in respiratory and immunology, oncology, HIV and infectious diseases. 2031 revenue outlook has increased to more than £40 billion and the company will impact the health of 2.5 billion people this decade.
Previously Emma spent 17 years at L’Oreal, in Paris, London, New York and Shanghai. She is a Board Director of Microsoft and has served on the US Business Council Executive Committee, the Stanford Medicine Board of Fellows, the boards of PhRMA Industry Association and Diageo and has been a business advisor to three UK Prime Ministers.
The first woman to run a major global pharmaceutical company, Emma has been recognized in Fortune Magazine’s Most Powerful Women, Forbes’ Global Power Women and Time 100 health Titans. She was voted Britain’s Most Admired Leader 3 times by peers and was the Sunday Times 2025 Business Person of the Year.
She holds an MA in Classics and Modern Languages from Oxford University and is married with four children.
WHEN: Thursday 30th April 2026
5.30PM – 6.30 PM: Fireside discussion in the Provost’s Drawing Room
6.30PM - 7.00PM: Networking and drinks
WHERE: Provost’s Drawing Room, King’s College, Cambridge
TICKETS: Registration will open closer to the time.
Please note that there will be photography at this event.