LONDON — GlaxoSmithKline said on Tuesday it had chosen its head of consumer healthcare, Emma Walmsley, as its new CEO, after considering internal and external candidates.She will become the first woman to head a top global pharmaceutical company and only the seventh to lead a business in the UK’s FTSE 100 index.Walmsley joined the UK’s biggest drugmaker in 2010 from L’Oreal and will replace Andrew Witty, who had announced his decision to retire on March 31 2017.She will join the board from January.The decision will disappoint investors such as Neil Woodford, a top shareholder and a critic of the drugmaker’s current structure, who wanted to see an outsider appointed to overhaul the company.However, Walmsley had always been tipped as a strong internal candidate, along with pharmaceuticals boss Abbas Hussain and manufacturing head Roger Connor.Her appointment is likely to be seen as a signal that Glaxo will retain the consumer business as a core part of its operations."Under Andrew’s l...
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