Walmsley, who holds an MA in Classics and Modern Languages from Oxford University, is currently CEO of GSK Consumer Healthcare. She joined GSK in 2010 from L’Oreal where, over the course of her 17-year career, she held a variety of marketing and general management roles in the UK, Europe and USA. From 2007 she was based in Shanghai as General Manager, Consumer Products for L’Oreal China. In 2016, she became a non-executive director of Diageo plc. 

Walmsley will join the GSK Board of Directors from 1 January 2017.