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About

On a mission to power the art of medicine with scientific insights to change the paradigm of care in MS

Every MS patient is unique. Knowing when and how to best treat them is the greatest challenge to solve.

At Octave, we deliver comprehensive insights that bring scientific clarity to MS, enabling an optimal care journey for patients to live more harmonious lives.

Our principles reflect our purpose.

Inquisitive Empathy

We care deeply about the patient experience—and are always open to hearing how we can improve it.

Scientific Innovation

In combination with science, we build solutions using technology, AI, and machine learning that power the art of medicine for MS providers.

Comprehensive Insights

We use rigorous scientific discipline to generate novel data and insights that address unmet needs in MS care.

Continuous Learning

The journey never ends. Based on new discoveries, we have built a foundation that allows us to learn and apply our knowledge together.

Our Leadership Team

A visionary and experienced team focused on the mission to provide precision care for MS patients.

William Hagstrom
William Hagstrom
CEO, Founder
Melinda Thomas
Melinda Thomas
COO, Co-Founder
Erwan Rivet
Erwan Rivet
CTO
Maital Shemesh-Rasmussen
Maital Shemesh-Rasmussen
Chief Commercial Officer
mike edgeworth
Mike Edgeworth, MD
Chief Population Health Officer
Stephanie McGrory
Senior Vice President, Business Development & Partnerships
William Hagstrom
William Hagstrom
CEO, Founder

Entrepreneur. Visionary. Passionate.

Bill has more than 25 years of start-up experience in a broad range of medical specialties intersecting science, technology, clinical medicine, and business strategy. Prior to founding Octave Bioscience, he served as the CEO of Crescendo Bioscience which created novel measurement tools and software in the field of rheumatology. Prior to this, he was the President of Alpha BioPartners, a strategic consulting firm advising the launch of new life sciences companies. While at Alpha BioPartners, Bill created the business plan for Crescendo and co-founded Altheus Therapeutics and Biolytx Pharmaceuticals. Prior to that, he served as the initial CEO of Selexys Pharmaceuticals and interim CEO of Inoveon in ophthalmology. In the 1990s, Bill was Chairman and CEO of UroCor, a urology specialty diagnostics company which he scaled from start-up through IPO. Earlier in his career, he was Vice President of Baxter International’s $1.0 billion Scientific Products Division and held management positions at the American Hospital Supply and Becton Dickinson. He currently serves on the board of directors for CareDx, Navican, Genalyte and CoFactor. Previously he was on the board of Prometheus Laboratories. Bill holds a BS in Business Management from Bob Jones University.

Melinda Thomas
Melinda Thomas
COO, Co-Founder

Leader. Builder. Problem Solver.

Melinda has over two decades of experience starting and leading health companies. Using her expertise, she wraps a company around a technical/scientific team so they can focus on meeting the company’s milestones. Melinda built CardioDx, a molecular diagnostics company specializing in cardiovascular genomics, and ParAllele, a high-throughput sequencing and SNP discovery company from the foundation point. ParAllele was acquired by Affymetrix in what one investor said was their best investment of the decade. Previously, she served as the Inaugural Entrepreneur in Residence for New York City, solving problems for aspiring entrepreneurs, and as Chair of the Board for the Save the Redwoods League. Prior to ParAllele, she guided Molecular Dynamics Manufacturing, building it from an 8 person to 85 person manufacturing organization. Melinda holds an MBA from Harvard and a BS from UC Berkeley.

Erwan Rivet
Erwan Rivet
CTO

Innovator. Data driven. Purposeful.

Erwan has over two decades experience in both start-ups and global corporations across multiple industries: high tech, industrials, and digital health. Prior to Octave Bioscience, he was global head of software engineering for the medical device group at EMD Serono, in Switzerland, integrating health in people’s digital life for the chronic diseases, growth hormones, and consumer divisions. Prior to this, he led a 300 engineers research and development team for building control systems at Honeywell, developing global digital IoT platforms for home automation and commercial buildings. Prior to that, he led teams at high tech start-ups, Cisco and Logitech. Erwan credits his time at Cisco as being the most formative for developing his leadership, strategic and program skills. He led a firewall release with projected revenues of $1.5B, delivered on time and within budget. Erwan holds a Global Executive MBA from TRIUM, a joint degree between NYU Stern, London School of Economics and HEC Paris. He also holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (Diplome d’Ingenieur) from Sup’Meca, Saint-Ouen, France.

Maital Shemesh-Rasmussen
Maital Shemesh-Rasmussen
Chief Commercial Officer

Imaginative. Trailblazer. Connector.

Maital is a leader in global digital health marketing strategy with extensive experience in the growth and commercialization of patient-centric, data-driven personalized care products and value-based approaches. Maital comes to Octave Bioscience from Roche (DIS), where she served as Global Head of Solution Marketing. In this role, she defined Roche’s new health tech strategy, bringing to market advanced digital solutions and commercial models that positioned Roche as a world leader in health technology. Some of her other previous positions include Director of Strategic and Product Marketing at Oracle Healthcare and Precision Medicine, Vice President of Global Marketing at JPMorgan Chase Bank, and Founder and CEO of Rasmussen Communications. She is also on the Board of Directors at Pluristem Therapeutics. Maital studied Behavioral Sciences at Ben Gurion University, Marketing Communication and Political Science at Bar-Ilan University, and Strategy, Finance, and Computer Science at Columbia University.

mike edgeworth
Mike Edgeworth, MD
Chief Population Health Officer

Collaborator. Pathfinder. Value-driven.

Mike has over two decades of experience as a neurologist and physician leader and is dedicated to data-driven problem solving, value-based health care and improving clinical outcomes for patient populations through collaborative relationships. Prior to Octave Bioscience, he was a Senior Medical Executive with Cigna Medicare where he was responsible for medical trend and affordability, clinical program innovation, value-based partnerships and development of quality networks. Mike credits his time at Cigna, including completion of Cigna’s Physician Leadership Development Program, with cultivating competencies in healthcare innovation, business acumen and collaborative management skills. Prior to Cigna, Mike provided compassionate care for patients with chronic neurodegenerative diseases and acute neurological conditions and served as Chairman of Medicine at StoneCrest Medical Center. Prior to StoneCrest, Mike completed his neurology training and neuro-oncology fellowship and served as Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the Division of Neuro-Oncology. While at Vanderbilt, he obtained a Master of Science inClinical Investigation.Mike resides in Nashville, TN, and is originally from Mississippi, where he obtained an undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Mississippi State University and Doctor of Medicine from the University of Mississippi.

Stephanie McGrory
Senior Vice President, Business Development & Partnerships

Collaborative. Optimistic. Committed.

Stephanie has more than 25 years of experience in business development, corporate development, and corporate marketing in the life sciences and technology industries. Prior to joining Octave, Stephanie was Head of Life Sciences for the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), where she led strategy and advised private companies on capital markets and corporate development. Prior to NYSE, Stephanie was Vice President of Business Development for Rani Therapeutics (Nasdaq: RANI), a developer of biotech drug delivery platforms, where she was responsible for business development, strategic partnerships, and corporate communications from inception through IPO. Prior to Rani, Stephanie was Vice President of Business Development for InCube Labs, a life sciences R&D lab and incubator that created numerous companies. Prior to InCube, Stephanie was cofounder and Executive Vice President of Client Operations for Greenough Communications, a marketing services agency that serves life sciences and technology clients. Stephanie holds a BA from The College of the Holy Cross.

Board of Directors

Octave is backed by seasoned and passionate healthcare leaders.

William Hagstrom
William Hagstrom
Octave Bioscience
Brook Byers
Brook Byers
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Tom Hawes
Tom Hawes
Managing Director, Healthcare, Sandbox Industries
Grant Heidrich
Grant Heidrich III
Independent Venture Capital & Private Equity Professional
Andrew Jackson
Andrea Jackson
Northpond Ventures
Michael Pellini
Michael Pellini
Foundation Medicine, Section 32
George Scangos
George Scangos
CEO, Vir Biotechnology
William Hagstrom
William Hagstrom

Bill has more than 25 years of start-up experience in a broad range of medical specialties intersecting science, technology, clinical medicine, and business strategy. Prior to founding Octave Bioscience, he served as the CEO of Crescendo Bioscience which created novel measurement tools and software in the field of rheumatology. Prior to this, he was the President of Alpha BioPartners, a strategic consulting firm advising the launch of new life sciences companies. While at Alpha BioPartners, Bill created the business plan for Crescendo and co-founded Altheus Therapeutics and Biolytx Pharmaceuticals. Prior to that, he served as the initial CEO of Selexys Pharmaceuticals and interim CEO of Inoveon in ophthalmology. In the 1990s, Bill was Chairman and CEO of UroCor, a urology specialty diagnostics company which he scaled from start-up through IPO. Earlier in his career, he was Vice President of Baxter International’s $1.0 billion Scientific Products Division and held management positions at the American Hospital Supply and Becton Dickinson. He currently serves on the board of directors for CareDx, Navican, Genalyte and CoFactor. Previously he was on the board of Prometheus Laboratories. Bill holds a BS in Business Management from Bob Jones University.

Brook Byers
Brook Byers

Brook Byers is a founding member of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. A venture capital investor since 1972, Brook has been closely involved with more than 60 new technology-based ventures, many of which have become public companies. He formed the first life sciences practice group in the venture capital profession in 1984 and led KPCB to become a premier venture capital firm in the medical, healthcare and biotechnology sectors. KPCB has invested in and helped build more than 110 life sciences companies that have developed hundreds of products to treat underserved medical needs for many millions of patients. Brook was the founding president and then chairman of four biotechnology companies that were incubated in KPCB’s offices and went on to become public companies with an aggregate market value of more than US $8 billion.

Tom Hawes
Tom Hawes

Tom Hawes is a member of the BlueCross BlueShield Fund Management team at Sandbox Industries and serves on the Sandbox Management Committee. He is the Board Chairman for Patientco, serves on the Board of Directors of HeartFlow, BehaveCare, Healthify, Oncology Analytics, and AbleTo and is a board observer of Phreesia, Lumiata, and WellspringHealthcare. Before joining Sandbox, Tom matched at Yale School of Medicine for residency and completed his first year of medical training at Greenwich Hospital. During his medical training, he worked on clinical studies at the ISK Institute for Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine and on outcomes research at the National Cancer Institute and NYMC’s Cardiothoracic Surgery Department. Tom holds a BA from Brigham Young University, an M.D. from New York Medical College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is also a Kauffman Fellow.

Grant Heidrich
Grant Heidrich III

Grant has innate skill at anticipating emerging technology and market trends coupled with an ability to coalesce teams of people around a shared vision. He has been in the venture capital industry for over 30 years. During his tenure, Grant co-managed Mayfield’s health care initiative and helped established its renowned franchise in health care. Prior to joining the firm, he was a Vice President at Wood River Capital. During his venture career, Grant has been on the Boards of more than 20 public and private companies.He was the President of the Western Association of Venture Capital and a former Member of the Board of Directors of the National Venture Capital Association. In 2009, Grant received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Venture Capital Association. He holds an MBA from Columbia University and a BA in Human Biology from Stanford University. Grant continues his active role in venture capital as an angel investor.

Andrew Jackson
Andrea Jackson

Andrea Jackson is a Director at Northpond Ventures and leads the firm’s work in convergent technologies. Previously, Andrea was the commercial lead at FarcastBiosciences, an oncology clinical diagnostic company. Prior to Farcast, Andrea held various senior commercial leadership roles in life science startups and large companies such as PerkinElmer and Millipore. Before her operating roles, Andrea worked in JPMorgan’s Healthcare Investment Banking team and focused on life science tools, diagnostics, and biotechnology companies. Andrea received an MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BA with honors from Washington University in St. Louis.

Michael Pellini
Michael Pellini

Dr. Michael Pellini is a Managing Partner at Section 32 and Chairman of Foundation Medicine. He previously served as the Chief Executive Officer at Foundation Medicine from 2011 until February 2017. Prior to this he served as Chief Operating Officer at PLUS Diagnostics and was President and Chief Operating Officer at Clarient. He also served as Vice President of Life Sciences at Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. Michael serves as Director and Scientific Advisory Board Member at Cira Discovery Sciences, Chairman of Foundation Medicine and is currently on the boards of Veneti, Adaptive Biotechnologies, Tango Therapeutics and Singular Genomics and The Personalized Medicine Coalition. Michael holds a Medical Degree from Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, an MBA Degree from Drexel University in Philadelphia and a BA in Economics from Boston College in Massachusetts.

George Scangos
George Scangos

George Scangos, Ph.D., is the chief executive officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Vir. Previously, he was the chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors of Biogen since July 2010. From 1996 to July 2010, George served as the president and chief executive officer of Exelixis, Inc., a drug discovery and development company, where he continues to serve on the board. From 1993 to 1996, George served as president of Bayer Biotechnology, where he was responsible for research, business development, process development, manufacturing, engineering and quality assurance of Bayer’s biological products. Before joining Bayer in 1987, George was a professor of biology at Johns Hopkins University, where he is still an adjunct professor. He served as non-executive chairman of Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, from 2005 to July 2010 and was a director of the company from 2003 to July 2010. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Agilent, Exelixis, and Decibel Therapeutics. George served as the Chair of PhRMA from March of 2016 to January of 2017. He also served as the chair of the California Healthcare Institute in 2010 and was a member of the board of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development until 2010. He is a member of the boards of trustees of the Boston Museum of Science and the Biomedical Science Careers Program, and a member of the National Board of Visitors of the University of California, Davis School of Medicine.

Our Investors

Blue Cross Blue Shield
Echo
Section32
Northpond Ventures
Casdin Capital
Deerfield
global health