Melinda Thomas, COO & Co-Founder of Octave Bioscience, shared the story behind her title with us on August 14, 2022.
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, 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. Before ParAllele, she guided Molecular Dynamics Manufacturing, building it from an 8-person to an 85-person manufacturing organization. Melinda holds an MBA from Harvard and a BS from UC Berkeley.
"Melinda Thomas' life and career journey was one of saying yes to opportunities that presented themselves to her. From when she was seven and said sure, I'll help the neighbor build that cinderblock grease pit to saying yes to the multiple opportunities to launch new companies. It's always been a matter of following her gut and wanting to learn new things. Learn why she and her co-Founder decided to tackle the most complex neurological disease first when launching Octave."
