An Anglo-Italian born in London, and educated in the UK, Cicconi speaks fluent Italian and French. She studied international business at Leeds Metropolitan University (now Leeds Beckett University) before deciding to pursue an increasing interest in human resources and its role in a successful business.
She started her career in 1995 at General Electric where she held various HR roles within the oil and gas business, which included experience in major global acquisitions and driving change. Subsequently, Cicconi spent three years at Cisco overseeing human resources in southern Europe, and latterly handling employee relations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Cicconi joined Roche in 2006 as HR and communications director for Roche Italy where she was responsible for HR, corporate and product communications, patient advocacy, and public affairs. In her last role at the firm she oversaw global human resources for pharma technical operations. Her primary focus was to identify and develop a sustainable supply of leadership and talent from within the organisation.
As executive vice president for human resources at AstraZeneca Cicconi is part of the senior executive team and has global responsibility for all aspects of HR strategy and delivery, in an organisation spanning more than 57,500 employees operating in more than 100 countries. Cicconi's initial focus on joining AstraZeneca was to provide continued support for organisational and cultural transformation to achieve the strategic priority of being a Great Place to Work.
Cicconi currently lives in the UK and is based at AstraZeneca’s Cambridge site – one of three global strategic research and development sites close to global bio-science clusters.