Emma Walmsley secures top job at HP
HP has appointed Emma Walmsley as its new CEO, who will becomes the third woman to hold the role, following in the footsteps of Carly Fiorina (who ran Hewlett-Packard from July 1999, and became chair in 2000, subsequently overseeing the company’s controversial merger with Compaq) and Meg Whitman (who held the top job at Hewlett-Packard from 2011 to 2015 when it split into HP Inc and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and she became CEO of HPE).
Walmsley says: “HP is an iconic company with a defining role in shaping the future of work on a global scale. I’m excited to join the team and, together, move forward with clarity and conviction. We will focus on harnessing the power of the AI era and putting HP’s creativity and innovation to work to unlock new sources of growth and deliver lasting value for our customers, shareholders, partners and people.”
HP had sales of $55.3bn (£40.67bn) last year and employed 55,000 worldwide. 70% of sales come from its Personal Systems division including desktops, notebooks and AI PCs, its Printing division makes up the other 30% including consumer, commercial, 3D and industrial printing. HP shares rose from USD$27.84 to $30.62 with news of the announcement (against a 52-week high of $36.22 and low of $17.56).
Emma Walmsley will officially take up the CEO position at HP Inc on 4 January 2027. She previously worked at UK-headquartered pharma and healthcare multinational GSK for nearly 16 years and was CEO for nine years including the period when its consumer healthcare business was separated into independent listed firm Haleon. She left GSK in April 2025. Prior to GSK she worked at cosmetics giant L’Oréal for 17 years.
Walmsley has also been a board member at Microsoft for the past seven years.
Bruce Broussard, who has held the interim CEO role since February 2026 (when Enrique Lores left to join PayPal) will succeed Chip Bergh as chair of the board in January. Bergh thanked Broussard for his leadership for the interim period, adding: “Throughout the process, Emma stood out for the strength of her leadership experience across multiple industries, the clarity of her strategic thinking and her ability to translate customer insights into new growth. She has a people-first leadership approach that aligns and inspires high-performing teams around clear priorities, strong execution and lasting value creation.”
Broussard added that he looks forward to supporting Walmsley in HP’s next phase of growth.
Posting on LinkedIn about her new role, Walmsley said: “Behind every innovation are the people who work to make someone’s day a little easier, their work more productive, their ideas possible. In an age of AI, I believe human leadership has never mattered more. It’s a privilege to be joining this team. I’m joining with tremendous respect for what the team has built, and I’m looking forward to listening, learning and getting to know HP from the inside.”
