Emma Walmsley

Emma Walmsley has a rare distinction—she’s among just a handful of female CEOs in an industry infamous for its male skew in the C-Suite. But Walmsley hasn’t been shy about making her mark in the world of Big Pharma, transforming the core business strategy of GlaxoSmithKline, the British drug giant with more than $100 billion in market value, since she took the reins back in April 2017. Walmsley has been aggressive in striking deals—and hiring big name talent, like R&D chief Hal Barron—to bolster GSK’s drug pipeline. In January, the firm closed a $5 billion deal for the cancer-focused biotech Tesaro, part of a major shakeup intended to make GSK a dominant player in the oncology space after years of stagnation. And if those changes weren’t forward-looking enough, Walmsley oversaw a deal with 23andMe last year to leverage the genetic testing firm’s insights for drug development. She was nominated to the Microsoft board in September.

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