Updated version 5 - HP appoints GlaxoSmithKline restructuring expert Walmsley as CEO, shares surge over 6%

Stock price information updated in paragraph 6

Anzar Mehraj

Reuters, November 4 - HP (HPQ.N) on Wednesday appointed former GSK CEO and Microsoft board member Emma Walmsley as its chief executive officer to lead the PC maker through the current memory chip shortage crisis—a crisis that has pushed up prices and triggered a severe downturn in the sector.

She will succeed interim CEO Bruce Broussard on January 4, while Broussard will transition to the role of chairman of the board, replacing Chip Bergh.

Walmsley led GSK from 2017 until December of last year. Although she lacks prior experience in the technology hardware sector, she will nonetheless take the helm at HP, helping the company revive its flagging personal computer market and seize the opportunities brought by demand for artificial intelligence devices.

Her seven-year tenure on Microsoft’s board has been her closest engagement with the tech sector.

“Walmsley may not have a hardware background, but she has led large-scale restructurings, including spinning off Haleon from GSK, which aligns better with HP’s requirements,” said Capital.com senior market specialist Vitor Madeira.

Shares of the Palo Alto, California-based company rose 6.6%. As of the last close, the stock is up nearly 27% so far this year.

This is not the first time Walmsley’s suitability for a role has been questioned. Before GSK’s Haleon spinoff (link), activist investors Elliott and Bluebell questioned (link) whether she could lead the “new GSK” in the absence of steady consumer health revenues to counterbalance the uncertainty in drug development.

Given her previous leadership of the consumer goods division and her 17 years at L’Oréal, most of their criticism focused on her lack of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.

Madeira said the key test will be whether she can maintain profitability during the industry downturn and find new growth drivers outside traditional PCs—such as AI devices—before memory costs recede.

Like its peers Dell Technologies (DELL.N), Apple (AAPL.O), and Lenovo (0992.HK), HP is deeply caught up in the global memory chip shortage, as the construction of massive AI data centers consumes much of the available capacity.

This pressure was evident in HP’s third-quarter financial report released in August (link): even though the business saw an 18% increase in revenue thanks to a shift towards higher-priced, higher-margin products including AI PCs, overall PC shipments still fell by 16%.

In a filing submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in September (link), the company said it would not provide financial guidance for fiscal 2027 and expects industry-wide PC shipments to decline by mid-single digits next year.

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