Hedge fund had sought to force Emma Walmsley to reapply for her job ahead of drugmaker’s corporate split
The drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline has stood by its chief executive, Emma Walmsley, insisting she will lead the pharmaceuticals and vaccines company after a corporate split next year, as the board pushes back against demands for a new executive line-up from the activist investor Elliott Management.
A day after the New York hedge fund published a 17-page letter lambasting GSK’s years of underperformance and in effect demanding Walmsley reapply for her job before the planned demerger of its consumer healthcare division from its life sciences arm, GSK hit back with a three-page statement defending the strategy.