About

Simon Hollywood joined ICON in 2010 and was promoted to his current position in 2014, leading a multi-disciplinary global team of 24 legal professionals that provides legal support and advice to multiple ICON business lines. Hollywood acts as general counsel to ICON’s DOCS business, a global top three functional service provider to large pharmaceutical and biotech clients. He has been a member of the DOCS executive management team since 2012, and manages the DOCS commercial contracts function which is responsible for supporting business development and all contract negotiations, many long term strategic commercial agreements with top 20 global pharmaceutical companies. Hollywood is the lead lawyer on ICON acquisitions and has been a member of the ICON deal team since 2010, having worked on 15 successful acquisitions for ICON. He is responsible for the negotiation of all transaction documents and oversight of all aspects of legal due diligence, and some of his work highlights include: the acquisition of Molecular MD in 2019 for US$42m, and the acquisition of 60% of MediNova in 2019 with option to acquire remaining 40% of shares. Hollywood acts as a senior legal business partner to the chief financial officer, and his functional leadership teams on strategic finance initiatives. Additionally, he provides oversight of ICON’s study start up and site business legal function, made up of 15 legal professionals globally supporting the negotiation of ICON’s commercial contracts with healthcare institutions and investigators for the conduct of clinical trials. The function supports ICON’s “Study Start-up” team in the execution of approximately 6,000 contracts globally per annum. A core focus of his role has also been improving cross-functional collaboration and driving operational efficiency within the team. He also covers other roles involving data privacy and other legal management. He highlights the following: ‘There have been many challenges along the way but by truly understanding the business goals and strategy I have been able to successfully support the business in overcoming these obstacles. I believe a successful in-house career is built upon understanding the business needs of your clients and developing strong working relationships. If you fully appreciate the overall business strategy this allows you to make better tactical decisions along the way’