GSK Proposes Doubling CEO Emma Walmsley’s Pay to $27 Million

The pay increase aims to align GSK's executive compensation with global biopharma peers and incentivize performance targets tied to share price growth and drug rollouts.

• GSK's new remuneration policy could raise CEO Emma Walmsley’s pay to £21.6 million ($27.2 million), contingent on achieving a 50% share price increase and successful drug launches.
• The proposal responds to concerns that Walmsley’s current pay, in the lower quartile of global biopharma peers, is insufficient to reward her performance or attract future leadership talent.
• Walmsley’s 2024 pay was £10.6 million ($13.3 million), with only 16% representing her base salary, and the new plan increases her long-term share incentive award potential from six to eight times her base salary.
• The proposed changes reflect GSK’s shift to benchmark executive pay against major global pharmaceutical companies like Merck, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca, following its 2022 spin-off of Haleon.
• Shareholders will vote on the remuneration plan in May, following similar moves by other UK-listed companies to adopt US-style executive pay structures.

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