Dr Pauline Williams is the senior vice president global health R&D in GSK. She has spent over 25 years in drug discovery and development with a focus on clinical pharmacology and translational medicine. Within the GSK-Save the Children Partnership she initiated and led a project to develop a chlorhexidine gel product for prevention of serious infections of the umbilical cord. She also founded the GSK noncommunicable diseases open lab, which provides support to African researchers to understand and address the rising burden of NCDs in sub-Saharan Africa. Williams has led GSK Global Health R&D since 2017, overseeing dedicated teams of scientists and physicians working on innovative treatments for malaria, TB, and kinetoplastid diseases.