Emily Lawson

Dame Emily Lawson
Born	Westminster, London, England
Occupation(s)	Management consultant, NHS executive
Years active	1995–present
Known for	Leading NHS COVID-19 vaccine programme rollout
Notable work	Women Matter 2012: Making the Breakthrough (co-author)

Dame Emily Jane Ruth Lawson is a British management consultant currently serving as the interim Chief Operating Officer at NHS England. She was instrumental in leading the initial deployment of the NHS COVID-19 vaccine programme in 2020, followed by oversight of the booster campaign in 2021. Her prior experience includes roles in human resources at McKinsey & Company, Morrisons, and Kingfisher plc.

Early life and education

Lawson was born in March 1967 in Westminster, London. She attended North London Collegiate School and later Westminster School. Of Jewish heritage, she pursued Natural Sciences at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, graduating with first-class honours in 1989 and holding the presidency of the Caius Science Society during her final year. She earned a PhD in molecular genetics from the John Innes Centre at the University of East Anglia, focusing her thesis on transposons in Arabidopsis, completed in 1993. Following this, she spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania before transitioning to a technology and business development manager position at Avitech Diagnostics, a biotechnology company, where she worked for two years.

Career

In 1998, Lawson obtained an MBA from Saïd Business School, part of the University of Oxford, and commenced her career at management consultancy firm McKinsey & Company. Rising to partner within McKinsey’s London office, she led the human capital practice across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. She co-authored the 2012 publication Women Matter 2012: Making the Breakthrough, which addresses strategies to enhance gender diversity in corporate environments. In September 2013, Lawson took on the role of group Human Resources Director at supermarket chain Morrisons, leaving in 2015 to become Chief People Officer at Kingfisher plc, a position she held for one year.

Lawson joined NHS England in November 2017 as National Director for Transformation and Corporate Operations, managing business transformation initiatives and overseeing the integration of NHS Improvement. Early in 2020, she was promoted to Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). By November 2020, she was appointed Senior Responsible Officer for the NHS's COVID-19 vaccine rollout programme, guiding its initial phases. During summer 2021, Lawson was seconded to lead Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Delivery Unit before returning to direct the vaccine booster campaign from October 2021. She resumed leadership of this unit again in 2022. After stepping down from this role in August 2023, she rejoined NHS England as interim Chief Operating Officer in October 2023, succeeding Jim Mackey.

In recognition of her contributions to the NHS throughout the COVID-19 crisis, Lawson was honoured as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours. Additionally, she is a founding member and serves as deputy chair of the 30% Club, an organisation advocating for increased gender diversity within business leadership.

Selected publications

• Scheres, B., Wolkenfelt, H., Willemsen, V., Terlouw, M., Lawson, E., Dean, C., Weisbeek, P. (1994). Embryonic origin of the Arabidopsis primary root and root meristem initials. Development, 120(9), 2475–2487.
• Guthridge, M., Komm, A. B., Lawson, E. (2008). Making talent a strategic priority. McKinsey.
• Lawson, E., Price, C. (2003). The psychology of change management. McKinsey.