Emily Lawson

Lawson obtained an MBA at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford in 1998.^[7] She joined management consultancy McKinsey & Company in the same year.^[3] Lawson was promoted to partner at the firm's London office and led its human capital practice across Europe, Middle East, and Africa, and co-wrote its 2012 report Women Matter 2012: Making the Breakthrough on improving gender diversity in business.^[5] She joined supermarket chain Morrisons as their group Human Resources Director in September 2013.^[8] Lawson left the company in 2015,^[9] and joined Kingfisher plc as their Chief People Officer.^[10] She left Kingfisher plc after a year.^[11]

In November 2017, Lawson joined NHS England as their National Director for Transformation and Corporate Operations. She was responsible for business transformation and the integration of NHS Improvement into the organisation.^[12] Lawson was promoted to Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) in early 2020.^[13] She left this role to become the Senior Responsible Officer for the NHS COVID-19 vaccine deployment programme in November 2020 and led its initial rollout.^[14] She was seconded to lead Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Delivery Unit for the summer of 2021 before returning to lead the vaccine booster programme in October 2021.^[15][16][17] Lawson returned to lead the unit in 2022.^[18] She left this role in August 2023 and returned to NHS England in October 2023 as its interim Chief Operating Officer (COO) replacing Jim Mackey.^[19][20][21] She left NHS England in March 2025 and became COO of management consultancy Newton Consulting in October 2025.^[22][23]

Lawson was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to the NHS, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.^[24][25] She is a founding member of and deputy chair of the 30% Club which aims to improve gender diversity in business.^[26]

• Scheres, B.; Wolkenfelt, H.; Willemsen, V.; Terlouw, M.; Lawson, E.; Dean, C.; Weisbeek, P. (1 September 1994). "Embryonic origin of the Arabidopsis primary root and root meristem initials". Development. 120 (9): 2475–2487. doi:10.1242/dev.120.9.2475. hdl:1874/12641. ISSN 1477-9129.
• Guthridge, Matthew; Komm, Asmus B.; Lawson, Emily (2008). Making talent a strategic priority (PDF). McKinsey. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
• Lawson, Emily; Price, Colin (2003). The psychology of change management (PDF). McKinsey.