Rapid News Brief

HP named former GSK CEO Emma Walmsley as its next chief executive Nov. 4, pairing a Jan. 4, 2027, management handoff with a change in board leadership as the PC maker navigates higher component costs and an AI-driven product transition.

Walmsley will succeed Bruce Broussard, who has served as interim CEO since February. Broussard will become board chair on the same date, replacing Chip Bergh, according to HP’s announcement.

A two-part leadership transition

HP said its board unanimously selected Walmsley after a global search. Bergh, a director since 2015 and chair since 2017, will remain chair until the January handoff.

Walmsley led GSK from April 2017 through December 2025. She joined the drugmaker in 2010 and became CEO of its consumer health business in 2015. Earlier, she spent 17 years at L’Oréal. HP also cited her seven years on Microsoft’s board.

Bergh said directors valued her experience managing different kinds of businesses and identifying opportunities from customer behavior. HP pointed to Walmsley’s role in separating GSK’s consumer health division and concentrating the remaining company on specialty medicines and vaccines.

Vitor Madeira, a senior market specialist at Capital.com, told Reuters that her experience restructuring GSK was relevant to HP’s needs despite her lack of a hardware background.

Component costs and the AI opportunity

Broussard described Walmsley’s assignment in terms of bringing HP’s businesses together as more AI processing moves onto devices. Walmsley said she would focus on using AI to develop new sources of growth.

HP’s Aug. 26 earnings release illustrates the operating challenge. Its Personal Systems business reported $11.8 billion in third-quarter revenue, up 18% from a year earlier, even as unit shipments fell 16%. The segment’s operating margin was 4.6%.

Printing revenue fell 2% to $3.9 billion. Broussard said at the time that HP was gaining share in premium products and improving memory supply.

Reuters reported that PC manufacturers face a memory-chip squeeze as AI data centers absorb capacity. Walmsley inherits that cost pressure along with the task of turning HP’s AI strategy into sales growth.