HP names former GSK chief Emma Walmsley as CEO, with interim head Bruce Broussard moving to chair

Walmsley, who has sat on Microsoft's board for seven years, takes over on January 4, 2027, at a company whose finance chief expects input costs to keep rising.

Emma Walmsley, who ran GSK from April 2017 to December 2025, takes over on January 4, 2027. She has served on Microsoft's board for seven years.

Bruce Broussard, who has been interim CEO since February 2026, becomes chair of the board on the same day. He succeeds Chip Bergh, who has chaired HP's board since 2017.

Her career at the top has been in pharmaceuticals, while HP's results turn on PC volumes. On August 26, Broussard said the search for a permanent chief was going well but gave no details and no timeline.

She inherits a company in good shape on the numbers and facing a harder year. HP reported third-quarter earnings of $0.83 a share on revenue of $15.68B, against $14.44B expected. It guided fourth-quarter earnings to $0.69-$0.79, above the consensus of $0.67, and raised its free cash flow estimate for fiscal 2026 to $3.0B-$3.2B.

In September HP said industry-wide PC unit volumes could fall by a mid-single-digit percentage in calendar 2027 against 2026. It called that a preliminary planning assumption and gave no fiscal 2027 guidance.