GSK chief dismisses co-CEO strategy: ‘I think there are few things more obnoxious in life than CEOs complaining about how hard their life is’
Major companies, including Spotify, Oracle and Comcast, named co-CEOs this year, drawing new attention to the company’s long-scrutinized strategy of bringing together dual leaders with complementary experience to take the top job. But Emma Walmsley, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, is not buying the leadership model, which is based in part on the idea that the role of the CEO has become too large — even unsustainable — for one person to handle.
“I think there are few things more obnoxious in life than CEOs complaining about how hard their lives are,” said Emma Walmsley. luck Senior Editor Claire Zelman During luckThe Most Powerful Women Summit is on Tuesday.
Walmsley has served as CEO of GSK, the British pharmaceutical company, since April 2017 and will step down at the end of the year. Under Walmsley, GlaxoSmithKline spun off its consumer healthcare business, Halion, gained regulatory approval for its pioneering respiratory syncytial virus vaccine, and expanded its HIV treatment portfolio. However, it failed to attract investors.
The 56-year-old acknowledged that the CEO position is tough – both personally and professionally – and that those in the top job must be prepared “from a resilience and stamina point of view”. She said she made 38 trips to the United States last year, and is currently on a journey that will take her to seven cities on three continents, all in the space of ten days.
But that’s part of the responsibility that comes with being the head of a company, Walmsley said, advising CEO candidates to give the position “everything you might have.”
“It’s not about being a superhero,” Walmsley said of the CEO position. “I don’t know if it’s about job sharing.”
Spotify is the latest company to embrace the co-CEO model. In September, it named two leaders to replace Daniel Ek in 2026. Earlier this year, Comcast said current CEO Brian Roberts would be joined by Michael Kavanagh, the former chairman, as co-CEO in January. Just a week before that, Oracle restructured to a co-CEO model as well.
The co-CEO structure is rare, but research suggests it can work. Co-CEOs generated average annual shareholder returns of 9.5% while in charge, higher than the single CEO average of 6.9%, according to a Harvard Business Review study of 87 public companies with co-CEOs between 1996 and 2020. Some companies in the study saw productivity increases of more than 12%. The average co-CEO tenure was about five years, in line with sole CEOs. CEO advisor Mark Feagin led the study and previously told him luck The model’s success depends on three factors: CEOs working together in separate areas of expertise, upholding shared values and a clear way to resolve conflicts.
Walmsley said the co-CEO model can work if the company can create the right “cocktail” and mix. But she said CEOs must be “prepared to stand up and absorb all the pressure” and look beyond themselves. “It’s not about you; get your ego out of the way,” she said. “It’s about the team, it’s about the company, and it’s about the people you serve.”
2025-10-15 11:44:00
