Emma Walmsley

Emma Natasha Walmsley (born June 1969) is a British businesswoman, the CEO-designate of GlaxoSmithKline, who will assume the role when Sir Andrew Witty retires in March 2017.

Walmsley was born in June 1969 in Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria, the daughter of Vice-Admiral Sir Robert Walmsley and his wife, born Christina V Melvill. She boarded at St Swithun's School, Winchester and has a bachelor's degree in Classics and Modern Languages from Oxford University.

Walmsley spent 17 years at L’Oréal, and joined GlaxoSmithKline in 2010, rising to head the consumer health-care division.

She has been a non-executive director of Diageo since January 2016.

Walmsley married David Owen in September 1995 in Greenwich. The couple have four children.