Carolyn McCall and Emma Walmsley named most admired UK business leaders

According to Management Today's annual Britain's Most Admired Companies survey, head of ITV Carolyn McCall and head of GSK Emma Walmsley are the most admired leaders in the country.

Emma Walmsley took over the top job at GSK in April 2017 as the first woman to run the company and any major pharma firm.

"GSK has a long track record of making a great difference to patients with our respiratory and HIV medicines. We are world leaders in vaccines and consumer healthcare, but I’ve made it our number one priority to strengthen our pipeline of new medicines further," she told Management Today.

So in addition to the company’s HIV medicines, new shingles vaccine Shingrix and established asthma treatment Advair, Walmsley wants to speed up commercialisation of the latest immunological research.

"Financial performance and effective management can make a ‘good’ company, but to be truly world-class I think you need more than that. The real difference comes down to having a clear purpose which you stick to unwaveringly and which defines your actions and values. For us it is simple – we exist to help people do more, feel better and live longer,”she added.

Carolyn McCall entered ITV as the new chief executive earlier this year and she said: "There is something incredibly valuable in having a fresh perspective. You get the opportunity to ask a lot of questions about why you do things in a certain way. The first few months are invaluable for really identifying what change has to take place."

"As a leader you have to give clarity where you can, but you also have to absorb uncertainty for your people. You don’t want them distracted, you want them to be doing their best work. I think that’s something that’s especially pertinent in a creative organisation,” she added.

McCall has also been key in the negotiations between ITV and the BBC and Channel Four among others said Management Today. She has also put to use ITV studios, creating partnerships with the BBC, Sky, Netflix among others, allowing them to shoot their series and programmes there.

Among the best of the rest of the list we can also find Andrew Williams, Halma’s CEO, James Dyson from Dyson and Alison Brittain, CEO at Whitbread.