Leadership team

Dr. Steve Cutler was appointed Chief Executive Officer of ICON plc in March 2017, having previously served as Chief Operating Officer from January 2014. Dr. Cutler served as Group President Clinical Research Services since November 2011 until his appointment as Chief Operating Officer. Dr. Cutler was appointed to the Board of ICON plc in November 2015.

Prior to joining the Company, Dr. Cutler held the position of Chief Executive Officer of Kendle, having previously served as Chief Operating Officer. Prior to Kendle, Dr. Cutler spent 14 years with Quintiles where he served as Senior Vice President, Global Project Management; Senior Vice President, Clinical, Medical and Regulatory; Senior Vice President, Project Management - Europe; and Vice President, Oncology - Europe, as well as regional leadership positions in South Africa and Australia. Prior to joining Quintiles, Dr. Cutler held positions with Sandoz (now Novartis) in Australia and Europe.

Dr. Cutler holds a B.Sc. and a Ph.D from the University of Sydney and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Birmingham (UK).

Mr. Brendan Brennan has served as Chief Financial Officer since February 2012. Mr. Brennan has developed his career over the last 21 years from experience in various industries. Mr. Brennan joined ICON in 2006 and he has served in a number of senior finance roles in the Company including the role of Senior Vice President of Corporate Finance. Prior to this he developed his broad financial experience in Cement Roadstone Holdings, a major Irish building materials organization. Mr. Brennan spent a number of years in public accounting with PwC prior to this. Mr. Brennan is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Finance from Dublin City University. Over his many years of experience in the CRO industry Mr. Brennan has been involved in many industry organizations and developments including ACRO (Association of Clinical Research Organizations) where he was the founding Chairman of the industry CFO round table group, a group formed to aid CROs dealing with the various industry challenges. Mr. Brennan held the position of Chairman of the round table from its foundation in 2017 to December 31, 2019.

Dr. Ute Berger is President, Development & Commercialisation Solutions covering a diverse range of services including; Decentralised Clinical Trial Solutions, Early Clinical & Bioanalytical Solutions, Laboratory Solutions, Site & Patient Solutions, Commercialisation & Outcomes, and Consulting Services. She has 20+ years of clinical experience in academia and extensive experience in clinical research across all therapeutic areas, with a particular focus on malignant haematology and oncology. Prior to her current role Dr. Berger led the Medical & Scientific Affairs team globally across all therapeutic areas and also the pharmacovigilance and patient safety team.

Before joining ICON, Dr. Berger held numerous professional positions including Medical Coordinator for the German Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Study Centre as well as General Manager of the German Competence Network "Acute and Chronic Leukemias" where she has been instrumental in setting up a nationwide innovative research structure. As the Scientific Network Manager of the "European LeukemiaNet" she deployed a similar collaborative research structure across Europe. She was previously a Board Member of the Telematikplattform eV, a platform for medical research networks, which was set up to provide technical, legal and organisational solutions for data exchange in clinical research.

Dr. Berger is board certified in Internal Medicine, Haematology, and Medical Oncology and received her medical degree from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. She is certified by the European Society of Medical Oncology, has published extensively in prominent journals and presented at numerous scientific conferences.

Mr. Barry Balfe is President of ICON Pharma Development Solutions. (Pharma). Mr. Balfe previously served as President of ICON Functional Services (IFS). Mr. Balfe has been with ICON for over fifteen years and has held a number of senior roles, predominantly within the FSP division, where he has successfully grown this business and has developed and led a number of new strategic partnerships. Mr. Balfe was previously EVP, Global Business Development. As part of the FSP leadership team, Mr. Balfe served as Senior Vice-President, Global Program Management where he oversaw operational design, planning & delivery within the resourcing & FSP businesses. He initially joined ICON’s Business Development team in 2003, before taking on the leadership of ICON's US FSP business in early 2007 and subsequently overseeing European FSP operations. Mr. Balfe holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry, having studied at Dublin City University and Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Toulouse. He subsequently studied pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacovigilance at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the University of London.

Dr. Chris Smyth is President, ICON Biotech Solutions. (Biotech). Dr. Smyth has 30 years operational and therapeutic experience, most notably in Biotech, MedTech and oncology. Prior to ICON, Dr. Smyth spent 10 years in IQVIA Biotech, where he held EVP Oncology and Chief Operating Officer roles before assuming global leadership as President of the division. Dr. Smyth also previously led global clinical operations for 8 years at an oncology biotech company, Antisoma. Dr. Smyth holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from the University of Kent at Canterbury, a PhD in Reproductive Biology from the University of Edinburgh Medical School, and an MBA from Henley Management College.

Dr. Greg Licholai is Chief Medical and Innovation Officer at ICON plc, a global healthcare intelligence and clinical research organization. He is on the faculty at Yale School of Management and is Co-Director of the Center for Digital Health. Previously, he was President of rare disease at Moderna Therapeutics, President and Chief Medical Officer at Castle Creek Pharmaceuticals, and partner at McKinsey & Co. where he ran the healthcare data service line. He was also a senior executive at Proteostasis, Amicus Therapeutics and Medtronic Neurological as well as venture investor for Domain Associates. He was co-founder of Immunome Therapeutics.

Greg has degrees from Harvard Business School, Yale School of Medicine, Columbia University and Boston College. He trained at the Brigham and Women's, Children's, and Massachusetts General Hospitals. He serves on multiple company and non-profit boards including advisor to the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI), a public private partnership co-founded by Duke University and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He writes about innovation in healthcare for Forbes.

Mr. George A. McMillan is Chief Commercial Officer of ICON. Mr. McMillan joined ICON in 2012 as Executive Vice President of Finance Operations, a position he held until he was appointed Chief Commercial Officer in March 2017. Prior to ICON, Mr. McMillan held senior executive positions in a variety of service and consulting companies, most recently as CFO of PharmaNet Development Group. He also served as CEO of Palladium Group, a global leader in corporate performance management software and consulting; CFO and CEO of CMGI, the internet holding company, for which he was named Mass HighTech Turnaround CEO of the Year. Mr. McMillan was also CEO of BMG Direct, the North American music distribution division of Bertelsmann, A.G., and CFO/COO of Renaissance Solutions, a strategic consulting and technology services company. George holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Stanford University, a Doctor of Law from Harvard Law School and a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

Ms. Rose Kidd is President of Global Operations Delivery. Ms. Kidd has 32 years of experience in the industry. She started her career with GlaxoSmithKline in the area of pre-clinical and drug formulation. Ms. Kidd joined ICON in 1994 and has successfully grown her career from CRA, to project management and has held several senior roles in the organisation from Operations Delivery, FSP Delivery, Clinical Monitoring and Head of Quality & Compliance. Ms. Kidd has a Diploma in Food Science, a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacology and a Diploma in Strategy, Innovation and Change Management from Dublin City University.

 

Mr. Diarmaid Cunningham is Chief Administrative Officer, General Counsel, Executive Vice President and Company Secretary. 

Mr. Cunningham joined the Company as General Counsel in November 2009.  From 2009 until 2013, Mr. Cunningham was based in the Company’s global headquarters in Dublin.  In 2013, Mr. Cunningham was seconded to the Company’s US headquarters in Pennsylvania and that secondment ended in 2018 when Mr. Cunningham returned to Dublin.

In July 2016, Mr. Cunningham’s role expanded to include Chief Administrative Officer in addition to General Counsel. This expansion of his role means Mr. Cunningham has responsibility to the Company’s Quality Assurance, Client Contracts Services, Facilities and Procurement groups in addition to his responsibility for the Company’s Legal group.

Mr. Cunningham graduated with a Bachelor of Business and Legal Studies from University College Dublin in 1997, qualified as a lawyer in 2001 and completed the Stanford Executive Program at Stanford University in California in 2015.  Mr. Cunningham served as Secretary to the Board of the Association of Clinical Research Organizations (ACRO) in 2013 and 2014 and 2020 and has been appointed again for 2021. ACRO represents the CRO industry globally to key stakeholders including pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies, regulators, legislators and patient groups.

Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Cunningham spent 10 years with A&L Goodbody, one of Ireland's premier corporate law firms.

In January 2021, Mr. Cunningham was appointed as a non-executive director of the Irish charity The Jack & Jill Foundation.

Mr. O'Leary is ICON's Chief Information officer previous to this he held the position of President of ICON Central Laboratories. Mr. O'Leary joined the company in Feb-2001 as Manager of Data management in Dublin, Mr. O'Leary subsequently went on to set-up ICON's process improvement initiative "IMPROVE" and returned to Data Management to become EU VP of Data Management before becoming Global Head of Data Management in 2006. From 1994-2001 Mr. O'Leary worked for SmithKline Beecham and later GlaxoSmithKline and held positions in Data Management, Project Management and Resource Management. Mr. O'Leary is a graduate of Kingston University in Surrey and a Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Mr. O'Leary holds a Degree in Medicinal Chemistry and a Masters in Data Management.

Mr. Joe Cronin is Chief Human Resources Officer, responsible for designing and implementing people practices and building organisational leadership and culture that enable ICON to execute its strategy. Mr. Cronin joined ICON in 2014. Mr. Cronin has almost 20 years of HR experience in a variety of global industries, including ten years at the Kellogg company in a number of regional and global HR leadership roles. Mr. Cronin also spent time early in his career with the General Motors (GM) Corporation and the Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC). Mr. Cronin has a Bachelor of Business degree with a major in Human Resources, from the University of Limerick.

Mr. Simon Holmes leads ICON’s Corporate Investment and Partnerships group which has responsibility for capital allocation into M&A, equity investments and innovation partnerships. During his time at ICON Simon has led the acquisition of over 24 companies including the $12bn acquisition of PRA Health Sciences. A member of ICON’s leadership team since 2009 he is also involved in strategy development and business planning. Mr. Holmes joined ICON in 2005 originally as VP of Marketing and Market Development and took responsibility for Corporate Development in 2006. Between 2013 and 2017 he also had responsibility for ICON’s Investor Relations functions. Prior to joining ICON, Mr. Holmes held a number of senior roles within “Blue Chip” organisations in the IT Services and Telecommunications sectors, including Cable and Wireless, Logica and Microsoft. Mr. Holmes has an MBA from Smurfit Business school and is a graduate of Cambridge University and the University of East Anglia.