Newton accelerates growth ambitions with hire of Dame Emily Lawson as COO

Newton is a strategic delivery partner to organisations in the retail, consumer goods, defence, infrastructure, and public sectors. After almost 25 years of sustainable growth, Newton is now expanding globally, with an enhanced senior leadership team and a group structure that includes recent acquisitions to meet the needs of its growing client base.

Dame Emily Lawson, DBE, has joined the business as Chief Operating Officer (COO), responsible for setting the organisation up for further growth, as well as building on Newton’s success at delivering client impact every day. In doing so, she will bring together central functions across the business into one strategically focused unit.

Emily brings a proven track record in strategy, delivery, and organisational transformation in both the private and public sectors. Her career includes fifteen years at McKinsey where she led its global Human Capital practice, and roles as the Chief People Officer at Kingfisher and the Group HRD at Morrisons supermarkets.

Most recently, over the last eight years Emily has held a variety of roles at NHS England as well as spending two years at Number 10 Downing Street, where she established the No10 Delivery Unit. Her roles at NHS England included Chief Operating Officer, Chief Commercial officer, and National Director for Transformation. Between 2020 and 2022, Emily was responsible for the Covid Vaccination deployment programme, the fastest and most accurate vaccination programme in the history of the UK. Emily was also a founding member of – and former deputy chair of – the 30% Club, which aims to improve gender diversity in senior leadership positions globally.

Emily joins a senior team which has gone from strength to strength over the last few years. In 2022, Christine Hodgson became Chair of Newton, and a year later Steve Phillips was promoted to become the firm’s first Managing Partner. In 2024, Newton acquired Magnetic – a design and innovation consultancy – and Xantura, an AI and data-analytics specialist. This year, the business welcomed Wil Schoenmakers as Global Head of Retail and Consumer Goods and, most recently, hired Tony Ward as a Partner in Chicago to spearhead Newton’s expansion across North America.

Steve Phillips, Managing Partner at Newton, comments: “The last few years have been dedicated to building a stronger, more resilient, and more sustainable business – one poised to grow and evolve internationally, and deliver ever more impact for clients. Part of our commitment to continually being a better version of ourselves means surrounding ourselves with the best people – and Emily’s addition to the team certainly achieves this. Her extensive skill set and experience will help Newton continue to be the stand-out partner to help clients navigate deep complexity and periods of rapid change. She will be laser-focused on having a meaningful impact for our people and our clients.”

Emily Lawson, COO at Newton, comments: “I have already had a fascinating and diverse career, working for – and with – some of the world’s most complex and dynamic organisations. I learnt early on, building on my fascination with systems as they evolve, that it’s only by understanding and improving the whole system of an organisation that it’s possible to deliver long-lasting and sustainable improvement in performance. This means investing in people, designing processes and structures to support organisational priorities, responding to changes in the external environment, and making organisational goals meaningful to employees and to customers.

“At Newton, the team has an impressive balance of long-term thinking combined with forensic analysis and fast-paced problem solving, and a 25-year record of working with clients to achieve change. I look forward to working with everyone at Newton to ensure the business is set up to deliver value to clients every day, supporting on the incredibly complex challenges that they face right now, as well as tackling challenges yet to be identified.”

Media contact details

Sandy Downs and Emma Briggs, Newton PR Leads – Teamspirit

07384 907528

[email protected]

For clarification around the roles of leaders across Newton, please contact the media team members above.