Speaker Profile

Nate Gerstle has served as Gradient Sports’ CEO since its spin out from Pro Football Focus in May 2024. Gradient was founded to address a longstanding gap in football analytics: the absence of a consistent way to evaluate both outcomes and execution when assessing player performance. While the sport has developed sophisticated measures of results, far less attention has been paid to how effectively actions are carried out in context. Under Nate’s leadership, Gradient works with leading clubs and media organizations, including in the Premier League and across Europe and the U.S., to create a reliable and comparable framework for performance evaluation.

Before leading Gradient, Nate spent several years at Pro Football Focus, where he developed a cross-functional leadership profile spanning commercial, operational, and client-facing roles. Since Gradient’s independence, he has led the company’s growth as a global, distributed organization, while guiding its fundraising and long-term strategy as it expands its presence across association football.

Nate holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the University of Louisville and an MBA from Xavier University. He brings a business and operational perspective to sports analytics, shaped by experience across corporate finance, global advertising, and commercial construction. Through his work at Gradient, he continues to focus on building sustainable systems that support long-term decision-making in professional football, while helping establish a shared language for understanding player performance that can strengthen trust, deepen engagement, and support the sport’s long-term growth.

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