GSK Names CEO Designate as Emma Walmsley Set to Step Down
Luke Miels, the company’s current Chief Commercial Officer, has been appointed as the new CEO, signaling the company’s next phase after Dame Emma Walmsley’s era of strategic growth and innovation.
GSK has announced that current Chief Commercial Officer, Luke Miels, will take up the role of CEO and join the company’s board on 1 Jan. 2026 — replacing current CEO, Emma Walmsley, who has led the company for the past 9 years. Since joining GSK in 2017, Miels has been pivotal in building the company’s specialty medicines portfolio — notably across oncology and respiratory — through extensive leadership experience gained from previous senior positions at AstraZeneca, Roche, and Sanofi-Aventis, across the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
“I am deeply honored to be appointed as the next CEO of GSK, and grateful to all the people who have supported me on this journey, especially Emma,” said Miels, in a company press release (1). “GSK is a very special company, with outstanding prospects and enormous capacity to impact people’s health and to change lives. As the next CEO, I am privileged to take on this responsibility, with humility and ambition (1).”
Under Walmsley’s leadership, GSK's operating performance, portfolio, and pipeline underwent a comprehensive reinvigoration, adjusting the focus of the company to specialty medicines and vaccines. Additionally, Walmsley’s operational changes included improved R&D at the company and, as she leaves, GSK has 15 major pipeline opportunities set to launch before 2031. Furthermore, during her tenure, Walmsley led the successful demerger of consumer healthcare, creating a new industry-leading company, Haleon, in the process.
Reflecting on the leadership change, Walmsley said, in a press release (1): “2026 is a pivotal year for GSK to define its path for the decade ahead, and I believe the right moment for new leadership. As CEO, you hope to leave the company you love stronger than you found it and prepare for seamless succession. I’m proud to have done both — and to have created Haleon, a new world-leader in consumer health. Today, GSK is a biopharma innovator, with far stronger momentum and prospects than nine years ago.”
The board, led by Chair Sir Jonathan Symonds CBE, acknowledged Walmsley’s role in putting GSK on a stronger footing, and positioning the company for long-term growth, across specialty medicines and vaccines. “On behalf of the Board, I want to thank Emma and acknowledge her outstanding leadership in delivering a strategic transformation of GSK, including the successful demerger of Haleon. GSK today is necessarily very different to the company she was appointed to nine years ago and has a bright and ambitious future. The company is performing to a new, more competitive standard, with performance anchored in a stronger portfolio balanced across specialty medicines and vaccines,” Symonds added in the press release (1).
Walmsley will formally step down from the Board on Dec. 31, 2025, but she will remain with the company until September 2026 to support an orderly transition and continue to advise the board and new CEO on strategic matters relating to geopolitical and technological shifts.
Reference
GSK. Luke Miels Appointed CEO Designate for GSK. Press Release, Sep. 29, 2025.