Leadership

Everyone on our leadership team has a rich and diverse history.

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  • Jeff Lab 1x1

    Jeff Bluestone, Ph.D.

    Chief Executive Officer and President

  • Doug Sheehy Headshot (1)

    Doug Sheehy, J.D.

    Chief Legal Officer and Secretary

  • Peter Hallway 1x1

    Peter DiLaura

    Chief Business & Strategy Officer

  • Jessica Boardroom 1x1

    Jessica Stitt, MBA

    Chief Financial Officer

  • Mark Eisner 1x1

    Mark D. Eisner, M.D., MPH

    Chief Medical Officer

  • Joseph Arron 1x1

    Joseph R. Arron, M.D., Ph.D.

    Chief Scientific Officer

Jeff Lab 1x1

Jeff Bluestone, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer and President

Jeffrey Bluestone, Ph.D. is one of the leading immunologists in the field of T-cell activation and immune tolerance research that has led to the development of multiple immunotherapies, including the first FDA-approved drug targeting T-cell co-stimulation to treat autoimmune disease and organ transplantation and the first CTLA-4 antagonist drugs approved for the treatment of metastatic melanoma.

Dr. Bluestone is an academic leader on a national and international scale. He is former President and CEO of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, and was the founding director of the Immune Tolerance Network, the largest NIH-funded multicenter clinical immunology research program, testing novel immunotherapies in transplantation, autoimmunity and asthma/allergy.  While holding the A.W. and Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished Professorship at UCSF, Dr. Bluestone also served as executive vice chancellor and provost emeritus at UCSF and was the former director of the UCSF Diabetes Center.

Dr. Bluestone has received numerous awards including: a Guggenheim Fellowship; election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; the National Academy of Medicine; and the National Academy of Sciences; and an appointed member of Vice President Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Blue Ribbon Panel.

Doug Sheehy Headshot (1)

Doug Sheehy, J.D.

Chief Legal Officer and Secretary

Doug Sheehy is a senior biotechnology executive who has managed global legal and compliance operations for multiple companies. Prior to joining Sonoma, Sheehy served as General Counsel and Secretary for Aimmune Therapeutics, Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company that develops and commercializes treatments for potentially life-threatening food allergies. Aimmune’s lead product, PALFORZIA®, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of peanut allergy in 2020. Aimmune was acquired by Nestle Health Science for $2.6 billion in late 2020. Sheehy previously served as Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer, General Counsel and Secretary of Codexis, Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company that develops novel treatments for rare diseases and industrial synthetic enzymes for the pharmaceutical and food industries. Prior to Codexis, Sheehy served as Executive Director, Legal at CV Therapeutics, Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company that developed and commercialized treatments for cardiovascular disease. He started his career as a corporate and securities lawyer in Silicon Valley representing emerging growth companies and venture funds at Gunderson Dettmer.

Sheehy received an A.B. in History from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from American University’s Washington College of Law, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the American University Law Review.

Peter Hallway 1x1

Peter DiLaura

Chief Business & Strategy Officer

An accomplished biotechnology executive, Peter DiLaura has nearly 25 years of experience in corporate development, strategy, and business leadership. He joined the company in 2020 from Third Rock Ventures, where he served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence, focused on building innovative therapeutic companies. Prior to Third Rock, Peter spent five years as the Chief Executive Officer of Second Genome, a therapeutics company developing novel drugs from microbiome science. Earlier in his career, Peter led all corporate development at Ingenuity Systems, a systems biology company.  Peter began his career in life sciences as a consultant in the New York office of The Wilkerson Group.

Peter holds a BS in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

At Sonoma Biotherapeutics, Peter is responsible for corporate development, strategic planning, and operations.

Jessica Boardroom 1x1

Jessica Stitt, MBA

Chief Financial Officer

Jessica Stitt, MBA is a global biotech financial executive with over 20 years of experience in corporate transactions, healthcare finance and strategy. She most recently served as Chief Financial Officer at Gyroscope Therapeutics, a global clinical-stage gene therapy company focused on disease of the eye, acquired by Novartis. Prior to Gyroscope, Stitt served as Vice President of Finance and Operations for MyoKardia, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing targeted therapies for the treatment of serious cardiovascular diseases, acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb. She served as Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations for Theravance Biopharma, Inc., after the company’s spin-off from Theravance, Inc., now Innoviva, Inc. She previously held roles in finance at Nektar Therapeutics, Alkermes and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.

Stitt holds an MBA from Simmons School of Management and a B.A. from Saint Anselm College.

Mark Eisner 1x1

Mark D. Eisner, M.D., MPH

Chief Medical Officer

Mark D. Eisner, M.D., MPH, brings decades of experience in clinical development and operations in multiple therapeutic areas including immunology, fibrosis, infectious disease, ophthalmology and rare disease. He previously served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at FibroGen, where he led clinical development and operations of the company’s pipeline from Phase I to IV studies and medical affairs. He began his career in the biopharmaceutical industry at Genentech, where he served in clinical and medical leadership positions of increasing responsibility culminating in his role as Senior Vice President, Global Head of Immunology, Infectious Disease and Ophthalmology Product Development. Prior to Genentech, he served on the faculty of University of California, San Francisco for 10 years, first as Associate Professor of Medicine and Anesthesia, then as Clinical Professor of Medicine.

He earned his M.D. from University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, MPH from University of California, Berkeley, and his undergraduate degree in human biology from Stanford University. He completed residency training in internal medicine and fellowship training in pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

Joseph Arron 1x1

Joseph R. Arron, M.D., Ph.D.

Chief Scientific Officer

Joseph R. Arron, M.D., Ph.D., has extensive experience in drug and biomarker discovery and development. Previously, he served as the Chief Scientific Officer for Therapeutics at 23andMe, a genetics-driven consumer healthcare and biopharmaceutical company, where he managed a portfolio of more than 25 therapeutic programs, and developed and implemented comprehensive target discovery, translational research, and therapeutic candidate discovery strategies across multiple therapeutic areas. Prior to 23andMe, Dr. Arron was a Scientist at Genentech for over 15 years, and led target discovery, preclinical development and translational research for inflammatory, autoimmune, fibrotic and ophthalmic disorders as Vice President of Immunology Research. Dr. Arron has published more than 100 original articles. In addition to his role as Chief Scientific Officer, he serves as a member of Sonoma Bio’s Scientific Advisory Board.

Dr. Arron earned his Ph.D. in immunology from The Rockefeller University, his M.D. from Weill Medical College of Cornell University and an A.B. in chemistry from Princeton University. He conducted postdoctoral research in developmental biology at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Sonoma Bio’s board of accomplished professionals provides diverse perspectives.

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Careers at Sonoma Bio

We are a dedicated and varied team of people striving to realize our vision.