Octave Adds Two Growth Leaders to Executive Team
Octave, an innovator in outcomes-focused behavioral health care, welcomes two new leadership hires who will drive growth and payer partnerships as the company expands to more states. Berto Torres joins as Vice President of Business Development and Kristin Mikie Sword as Vice President of Marketing.
Torres and Sword bring diverse experience in the healthcare and wellness space, as well as rapidly scaling startups. Their additions round out Octave’s executive team following a series of strategic hires to accelerate the company’s move toward national expansion, fueled by its $52 million Series C fundraising round. Octave also recently appointed two seasoned healthcare executives to its Board of Directors: Amir Dan Rubin, former CEO of One Medical | Amazon, and Andrew Dreyfus, former President and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.
“Octave is at an inflection point for growth, and I’m very excited to welcome two leaders who know what it takes to grow strategically and sustainably. Berto’s deep experience bridging providers with payers will drive key partnerships to make quality mental health care affordable for more people, and Kristin’s exceptional talent for understanding consumers will connect our care to those who need it most,” said Sandeep Acharya, Founder and CEO of Octave.
Berto Torres, VP of Business Development
Torres brings over two decades of experience in healthcare, both on the payer side and the provider side, and ranging from startups to established institutions. He has served in leadership roles at Carbon Health, Headway, and One Medical, where he built and sustained meaningful partnerships with health systems and payers.
Torres worked within the health system and payer space at CommonSpirit, Centene, and Humana, where he established a track record of building new relationships to expand health care delivery to new regions. At Humana and Centene, he spearheaded the expansion of Medicaid, Medicare, and Commercial Networks across multiple states, often working with underrepresented community stakeholders and providers. While at CommonSpirit, Torres forged partnerships with national and regional payers negotiating value based care arrangements on behalf of its many regional clinically integrated networks.
“Working with partners to strengthen the mental healthcare system is a deeply personal endeavor. As the son of immigrants, I saw early in life the difficulty of navigating a complex system,” Torres said. “Years later, I still see many communities facing friction when trying to access care. As a father, I want to do my part in building a more sustainable healthcare system for the next generation.”
Kristin Sword, VP of Marketing
Sword similarly brings a mission-driven passion to Octave. She most recently was a marketing leader at Ro, where she led the development and growth of several wellness verticals including Ro’s mental health vertical, Ro Mind. Prior to Ro, she spearheaded integrated marketing at Health E-Commerce, where she fueled revenue growth and repositioned the brand.
Sword has dedicated her career to start-ups, guiding marketing and customer growth strategy for companies at all stages, from seed stage to Series D. She was on the founding team at Trove, a custom jewelry company backed by 3D printing technology, and the company was later acquired.
“Throughout my career in start-ups, I’ve been drawn to teams who have taken the initiative to solve complex problems and streamline systems. Octave is just that — an organization dedicated to providing care amid a space where access has been historically difficult. I look forward to telling Octave’s story and advancing our mission together,” Sword said.