New CEO Emma Walmsley shows she is not afraid to ruffle feathers at GSK

It seemed inevitable that change was on the horizon when Emma Walmsley’s appointment as chief executive of UK pharma major GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK), taking over from Sir Andrew Witty, was announced nearly a year ago.

Ms Walmsley’s background, coming from cosmetics giant L’Oréal and more recently GSK’s consumer division rather than its core pharmaceuticals business, marked her out as different, as did the fact that she was the first woman chief executive of a big drugmaker in the UK.

The Financial Times has noted, in an interview with Ms Walmsley and an update on her progress, that this change has started to arrive.