Former Senior Managing Director, Blackstone
Hillsborough, CA
Emmett Cunningham, Jr. was most recently a Senior Managing Director in Blackstone’s Life Sciences Group, having been a full-time entrepreneur and investor for more than 20 years. He has served on numerous boards in the biotech and pharmaceuticals sectors, and currently serves philanthropically on the boards of The Alta Foundation and EverythingALS, which address major unmet needs related to vision loss and neurodegenerative disorders, respectively. Emmett is a clinically active ophthalmologist specializing in infectious and inflammatory eye disease.
He received an MD and MPH in epidemiology and statistics from Johns Hopkins University and a PhD in neuroscience from UCSD for work done at The Salk Institute. He completed both a residency in ophthalmology and fellowship training in Corneal Disease and Uveitis at UCSF and The Francis I. Proctor Foundation, a medical retina and uveitis fellowship at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, and a fellowship in public health ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute in Baltimore. Emmett continues to teach clinical ophthalmology at CPMC, Stanford University, where he is an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology, and The Francis I. Proctor Foundation, UCSF School of Medicine, where he is a Research Associate.
He is married to Dr. Sharon Shaw and has two children. Emmett enjoys reading, swimming, and gardening.