Dr Emily Lawson
In November 2020, Emily was appointed Senior Responsible Officer for the NHS COVID-19 vaccine deployment programme. Emily leads the operational delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine across the NHS in England. Her role is to ensure the COVID-19 vaccine is rolled out in line with the vaccine prioritisation agenda set by the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and in a way that ensures fair and equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccine.
Emily is also the Chief Commercial Officer for NHS England and NHS Improvement. In this role, Emily oversees procurement, estates and other commercial functions across the health service. In addition, she is responsible for corporate operations, primary care support services and provides executive leadership to the Commercial Income team, Accelerated Access Collaborative and the Innovation, Research and Life portfolio.
Emily joined NHS England as National Director for Transformation and Corporate Operations in November 2017 with responsibility for a range of enabling corporate operations, focusing on leading the transformation agenda for the organisation and the integration of NHS England and NHS Improvement.
A molecular geneticist by background, Emily has led a number of large-scale organisational change programmes. Before joining NHS England, Emily was Chief People Officer at Kingfisher plc where she was part of the international leadership team. Prior to that, she was Group HRD at Morrisons and spent 15 years at McKinsey, where she worked across a number of sectors leading transformation.
Emily is also Deputy Chair of the 30% Club, which aims to increase representation of women on UK plc boards, and to research and support greater diversity in the UK and global institutions.