What does it take to hand over a company after years at the helm? Dame Emma Walmsley reflects on her tenure as CEO of GSK at the moment she was preparing to hand over to her successor, Luke Miels. It’s a rare chance to hear a CEO reflect on the full arc of their tenure, from stepping into the role to shaping their own succession.
After nearly a decade leading one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, Walmsley speaks candidly about the realities of the job, from navigating activist pressure to reshaping the company’s strategy and structure. At the core is responsibility.
“No one should take on these jobs without taking on the accountability,” she says. In moments of pressure, the job is to absorb the noise so the organization can stay focused and perform. During an activist campaign against her leadership, she made a deliberate choice to contain the disruption and keep the company aligned.
Inside GSK, she pushed to shift decision-making toward clearer accountability while encouraging open disagreement at the top. She describes explicitly inviting counterarguments and even staging visible disagreement within her leadership team to normalize challenge.
Looking back, she reflects on how her leadership evolved. Less formal, more focused on communication, and more human. She is also direct about succession. It is not something that is worked out at the end, she argues, but a responsibility that starts on day one.