Our Leadership

Hervé Hoppenot joined Incyte in 2014 as President and Chief Executive Officer and was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors in 2015.

During Mr. Hoppenot’s tenure, the company has tripled the number of clinical candidates in its portfolio, expanding beyond Oncology to include research and development in Inflammation & Autoimmunity. Under his leadership, revenue has increased by nearly 600%, which includes the addition of five new sources of potential revenue. With a goal to deliver medicines to patients worldwide, Incyte has expanded geographically and has operations in North America, Europe and Asia.

Prior to joining Incyte, Mr. Hoppenot was the President of Novartis Oncology. He began his career at Novartis in 2003 as Chief Commercial Officer and later became President in 2010. Mr. Hoppenot started his career in 1983 with Rhone Poulenc, later known as Aventis, where he served in several senior roles of increasing responsibility, including Vice President of Oncology and Head of the U.S. Oncology business unit. Mr. Hoppenot holds a diploma from ESSEC Business School.

Paula Swain joined Incyte in 2002 and serves as the Company’s Executive Vice President of Global Human Resources & Facilities. Additionally, Ms. Swain chairs the Incyte Charitable Giving Foundation.  Before joining the company, Ms. Swain spent nearly 10 years with DuPont (acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb Company in 2001), where she served as Vice President and Senior Vice President of Global Human Resources. She has also held positions in human resource planning and employee relations with Chase Manhattan Bank, Marine Midland Bank and Delaware Trust Company. Ms. Swain received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Rockhurst University and graduated from the Strategic Human Resources Planning program at Harvard Business School.

Pablo J. Cagnoni, M.D., joined Incyte in 2023 as President, Head of Research & Development. In his role, Dr. Cagnoni oversees Incyte’s research and development efforts across its portfolio of programs in Oncology, Hematology and Inflammation and Autoimmunity, including Dermatology.

Prior to joining Incyte, Dr. Cagnoni served as the Chief Executive Officer of Laronde, a company dedicated to the development of a new type of translatable ribonucleic acid (RNA) called endless RNA (eRNA), and held leadership roles at Rubius Therapeutics, Tizona Therapeutics, Onyx Pharmaceuticals and Novartis Oncology. Throughout his career as a pharmaceutical executive and oncologist, Dr. Cagnoni has advanced the development of breakthrough treatments, playing a key role in the development, approval and commercialization of more than 20 life-changing medicines.

Dr. Cagnoni earned his medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine. He completed his fellowship in Hematology and Oncology at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, and a fellowship in Stem Cell Transplantation at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

Steven Stein, M.D. joined Incyte in 2015 and currently serves as the Company’s Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. In his role as CMO, he oversees verticals including clinical development, clinical operations, pharmacovigilance, statistics and data management and regulatory affairs. Prior to joining Incyte, he worked at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, most recently as Senior Vice President, U.S. Clinical Development & Medical Affairs for Novartis Oncology. Prior to his tenure at Novartis, Dr. Stein worked at GSK (formerly GlaxoSmithKline) as Vice President, Global Oncology, Clinical Development and as Head of Medicines Development for Hematology and Supportive Care. Dr. Stein was previously an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where he had also completed a fellowship in Hematology and Oncology. Dr. Stein earned his medical degree from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Sheila A. Denton joined Incyte in 2023 as Executive Vice President and General Counsel, with more than 30 years of legal, policy and compliance experience across the biopharmaceutical, pharmaceutical and animal health industries.

Prior to joining Incyte, she spent nearly 20 years at Boehringer Ingelheim where she held positions of increasing levels of responsibility, including her most recent position as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. In this role, she was responsible for leading a team of professionals across legal, compliance, governmental affairs and policy functions, focused on providing solution-oriented support for the pharmaceutical and animal health businesses.

Christiana Stamoulis joined Incyte as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in 2019. With over 20 years of experience in the biotechnology industry, Ms. Stamoulis came to Incyte from Unum Therapeutics, where she was President and Chief Financial Officer. Prior to Unum, she was the Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Business Development at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Before joining Vertex, Ms. Stamoulis spent nearly 15 years in the investment banking and management consulting industries as a Managing Director at Citigroup’s Investment Banking division and a Senior Investment Banker in the Healthcare Investment Banking Group at Goldman Sachs. She began her career as a strategy consultant at The Boston Consulting Group. Ms. Stamoulis earned two Bachelors of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a Master of Business Administration from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Ms. Stamoulis currently serves on the board of directors of Hologic.

Barry Flannelly joined Incyte as Executive Vice President, Business Development and Strategic Planning in 2014, and was appointed General Manager, US, in 2015.  Dr. Flannelly has been working in oncology since 1987, starting his career in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, which later became Sanofi-Aventis. He has since had roles of increasing responsibility at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Abraxis Oncology, Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Nektar Therapeutics. During his career, Dr. Flannelly held positions in medical affairs, strategic planning and commercial operations, including Head of Sales and Marketing and Head of Business Development. He earned his Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, his Master of Business Administration from the University of Baltimore and his Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy.

Denise Brashear joined Incyte in 2022 as Vice President and Head, Global Communications with more than 25 years of global and U.S. healthcare experience. Her expertise spans strategic enterprise and brand communications, culture transformation and employee engagement, corporate reputation and issues management, executive communications, change management and patient advocacy.

Ms. Brashear joined Incyte from Novartis Oncology, where she was Vice President, Head of U.S. Communications and Global Portfolio Communications, leading external communications for the organization’s full portfolio of marketed and pipeline products and delivering enterprise communications for the U.S. business. In her 20-year tenure at Novartis, she held roles of increasing responsibility across the Pharma and Oncology divisions, leading teams focused on making an impact for patients, associates and the organization. Before joining Novartis, Ms. Brashear spent six years in New York-based public relations agencies, most recently as Group Vice President at GCI, where she worked across disease areas including infectious disease, dermatology and women’s health.

Vijay Iyengar joined Incyte as Executive Vice President, Global Strategy and Corporate Development in 2016. In 2022, his role was expanded to EVP, Head of Global Medical Affairs, Product and Partnership Strategy. In this role, he leads the Global Product Strategy, Value, Access and Pricing, Business Development, Alliance Management, ROW Partnerships, and Global Medical Affairs teams. Dr. Iyengar has more than 20 years of pharmaceutical industry experience. Previously, he served as the President of Genoptix Corporation, a Novartis Company, where he led a 650-person organization that offered CAP/CLIA-certified oncology diagnostic testing and clinical trial assay development and execution services. Prior to that, Dr. Iyengar held leadership roles in both U.S. and Global functions at Novartis, as Vice President and Rare Diseases Franchise Head at Novartis Oncology and Oncology General Manager of Novartis Greece. Before joining Novartis, he was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company where he served pharmaceutical and medical device clients as part of their healthcare practice. Dr. Iyengar received his Bachelor of Science in Biology from Stanford University and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School.

Lee Heeson joined Incyte in October of 2024 as Executive Vice President and Head of Incyte International. In his role, Mr. Heeson will lead commercial activities for Incyte outside of the United States, including Europe, Japan, Canada and rest of the world.

Prior to joining Incyte, Lee was Executive Vice President, Commercial International at Seagen; President of International at Vifor Pharma and President of Worldwide Markets at Celgene following other executive positions at the company. Earlier in his career, Lee held leadership positions at Galderma and Schering-Plough.

Lee holds a Bachelor of Arts, with honors, from Sheffield Hallam University.

Michael Morrissey joined Incyte in 2016 as Corporate Senior Vice President and Head of Global Technical Operations. He has more than 30 years of global pharmaceutical industry experience through prior positions in research and development, quality assurance and manufacturing. Most recently, Mr. Morrissey served as Corporate Vice President, Head of International Technical Operations at Celgene International, where he built the company’s internal production and distribution capabilities and launched its drugs worldwide. Prior to Celgene, he worked for Roche for 15 years in various positions. Mr. Morrissey holds a diploma in Physics and Applied Mathematics from the University of London.

Matteo Trotta joined Incyte as Executive Vice President and General Manager of U.S. Dermatology in 2024 overseeing the U.S. Dermatology Business Unit including commercial and medical affairs teams. Mr. Trotta has more than 15 years of pharmaceutical industry experience, spanning multiple therapeutic areas, clinical, platforms, functions and geographies. Prior to Incyte, Mr. Trotta served as the Head of Novartis U.S. Immunology, where he led a 400-person organization across dermatology, rheumatology, auto-inflammatory rare diseases and allergy. He additionally held leadership roles in U.S. marketing and sales, enterprise strategy and global manufacturing and quality. Before joining Novartis in 2012, he was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company where he served pharmaceutical and payer clients as part of their healthcare practice and held roles at GM-FIAT Worldwide Purchasing. Mr. Trotta received his Engineering Degree from Politecnico di Torino, his Master of Science in Engineering from the University of Illinois Chicago and his Master of Business Administration from Columbia Business School.

Xiaozhao Wang joined Incyte as Research Investigator in 2013, and since then has been taking on roles of increasing responsibility. Currently Dr. Wang serves as Associate Vice President, Head of Medicinal Chemistry, and oversees the Company’s Chemistry efforts on its small molecule programs. Dr. Wang joined Incyte from the University of Pennsylvania, where he conducted his postdoctoral research primarily in the field of natural product synthesis. Dr. Wang received his Bachelor of Science in Medicinal Chemistry from Tianjin University in Tianjin, China, and his doctorate degree in Organic Chemistry from The Ohio State University.