Dame Emily Jane Ruth Lawson DBE is a British management consultant and the interim Chief Operating Officer of NHS England. Lawson led the initial rollout of the NHS COVID-19 vaccine programme in 2020 and the subsequent booster programme in 2021. Prior to this, she worked for McKinsey & Company, Morrisons, and Kingfisher plc in human resources.
Emily Lawson DBE | |
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Education | North London Collegiate School Westminster School |
Alma mater | Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University of East Anglia University of Oxford University of Pennsylvania |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | NHS England |
Thesis | Molecular and genetic analysis of a modified Ac transposon in Arabidopsis. (1993) |
Lawson was born in Westminster, London in March 1967.[1] She attended North London Collegiate School and Westminster School.[citation needed] She is Jewish.[2] She studied Natural Sciences at Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge graduating with a first in 1989.[3] While there she was president of the Caius Science Society in her final year.[4] She then completed a doctorate in molecular genetics at the John Innes Centre, University of East Anglia, with a thesis on transposons in Arabidopsis in 1993.[3][5][6] After this, she undertook a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania and then worked as a technology and business development manager at the biotech firm Avitech Diagnostics for two years.[3]
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 replacing Jim Mackey.[19][20][21]
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.[22][23] She is a founding member of and deputy chair of the 30% Club which aims to improve gender diversity in business.[24]