Speaker Detail

Gordon Gund is chairman and co-founder of the Foundation Fighting Blindness, the largest nonprofit, non-governmental supporter of research on retinal degenerative disease in the world. Its mission is to find preventions, treatments and cures for blinding diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa, age-related macular degeneration, Stargardt's disease, Usher syndrome and allied retinal degenerative diseases. Collectively, they affect more than 10 million people in the United States and millions more worldwide. Since its inception in 1971, the foundation has raised more than $450 million to support its goal. It funds innovative research in a number of scientific areas, including stem cell therapies, genetics and gene therapy, neuroprotection and nutrition, conducted at 71 institutions, eye hospitals and universities around the world. Its subsidiary, the FFB Clinical Research Institute, funds and facilitates the translation of promising therapies from the laboratory to the clinic. Gund is also the lead board director of Corning, Inc. and Kellogg Co.