Pauline Williams CBE FMedSci is a pharmaceutical physician, formerly SVP and Head of Global Health R&D at GSK. An industry-trained clinical pharmacologist, she has spent most of her career in drug discovery and development spanning multiple therapeutic areas from pre-clinical to late-phase studies and market access. As Head of Discovery Medicine she successfully developed new approaches to transnational medicine, including innovative models of partnership between industry and academia. Having established a new research unit in GSK focusing on innovations for maternal and neonatal disorders (including a novel partnership model with Save the Children) Pauline pivoted towards Global Health. Here she led a team of scientists and physicians working on diseases of the developing world, with discovery and development efforts in malaria, TB and kinetoplastid diseases. Open-innovation and capacity building efforts included the Tres Cantos Open Lab and Africa NCD Open Lab. Pauline is a Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. She has recently stepped down as Council Member of the UK Medical Research Council after 6 years but remains on the MRC Major Investment Board. She now works as independent consultant and serves on several advisory boards in the fields of Global Health and Transnational Medicine. Pauline was awarded a CBE in 2021 for services to medical research and development.