GSK has announced that Luke Miels, current Chief Commercial Officer at GSK, has been appointed CEO Designate, succeeding Emma Walmsley, who will step down as CEO, effective at the end of 2025, with Miels assuming full responsibilities as CEO and joining the Board on January 1, 2026. Walmsley will step down from the Board on December 31, 2025, and will remain with the business until her notice period ends on September 30, 2026 and will support an orderly transition throughout that period. In addition, given the potential impact to GSK’s operating environment arising from geopolitics and new technologies, the Board has asked Walmsley to support the company and the new CEO on these matters. 

Miels joined GSK in 2017, and as Chief Commercial Officer, he has global responsibility for medicines and vaccines. Per the company, he has been instrumental in building GSK’s specialty medicines portfolio, notably in oncology and respiratory. He is an experienced global biopharma leader, having worked at senior levels in the US, Europe, and Asia, and at AstraZeneca, Roche and Sanofi-Aventis (now Sanofi), prior to joining GSK.  

Walmsley joined the GSK Board as CEO Designate on January 1, 2017 and became CEO on April 1, 2017. She has been a member of the GSK Leadership Team since 2011. Before being appointed as GSK’s CEO, she was the CEO of GSK Consumer Healthcare, a joint venture between GSK and Novartis, from its creation in March 2015. She joined GSK in 2010 from L’Oreal, having worked there for 17 years in a variety of roles in Paris, London, New York, and Shanghai.  

As GSK CEO, the company noted her achievements in delivering a comprehensive step-change in GSK’s operating performance and portfolio and pipeline by prioritizing the development of specialty medicines and vaccines and delivering multiple major new products. The company noted that under her tenure, R&D has been reinvigorated, with 15 major pipeline opportunities now set to launch in 2025-2031. 

Source: GSK