The Gravitate Dispatch: April 2026
April was a big month around here: a new leader on the engineering team, customer hardware at the NTTC Safety Awards, two tournaments, and one very large dataset.
Joel Davies
VP of Marketing
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April was a big month around here.
We added a new face to the leadership team, watched one of our customers take home some serious hardware, sponsored a charity tournament that got rained into a story we’ll be telling for years, and partnered with a group of college students who looked at 15 million of our records and didn’t blink.
Here’s a look at what’s been going on inside Gravitate’s world this month.
Welcome Stephen Okano, VP of Engineering
We are pleased to welcome Stephen Okano to Gravitate as Vice President of Engineering.
If you’ve ever called 911, there’s a reasonable chance the dispatch system on the other end of that call was something Stephen helped build at Mark43. After that, he spent time at Regard using AI to surface insights for doctors that were buried in patient data.
Stephen brings deep experience building and scaling complex, real-time decision systems across critical industries. From leading 911 dispatch platform development at Mark43 to applying AI in high-impact healthcare environments, his background aligns directly with the operational challenges our customers face every day.
At Gravitate, that experience will translate into continued investment in the systems that matter most: real-time supply and dispatch, pricing intelligence, and the decision infrastructure required to operate a modern fuel supply chain. Stephen will lead our engineering organization with a focus on platform scalability, product velocity, and delivering reliable, enterprise-grade capabilities across our network.
“The pace of AI innovation isn’t just accelerating; it’s hitting an inflection point. Since we launched our AI initiatives in 2020, we’ve built a foundation that most are only now trying to replicate. With Stephen joining us as VP of Engineering, we are ready to harness this new era of power. He is the right leader to drive us toward our ultimate goals of achieving fully autonomous fuel dispatch and fundamentally rewriting the rules of how fuel is bought and sold at the rack.”
— Mike Scharf, CEO of Gravitate
Congrats to SWTO on the 2025 NTTC Safety Awards
A few weeks back in Baltimore, our customer SWTO took home recognition at the National Tank Truck Carriers Safety Contest, including a standout moment for Jarrod Alsobrooks representing the company and the broader tank truck industry.
We loved seeing Archie Wood’s reflection on the win. He talked less about the trophy and more about the culture his team is building, the professional drivers behind every mile, and the powerful testimony from Ryan Davis on the power of mindset.
That’s the kind of customer we’re lucky to work with. Congrats again to the entire SWTO team.
Two Tournaments, One Umbrella, Zero Regrets
Houston, TX: Fuel Relief Fund Golf Tournament
Gravitate was proud to sponsor this year’s Fuel Relief Fund tournament, which raises money to deliver energy to victims of natural disasters around the world. Tom and Steve Ruhl made it most of the way through the round before a Texas-sized monsoon rolled in. Worth every drenched scorecard.
Irving, TX: SIGMA Spring Conference Pickleball
Over at SIGMA, Joel partnered up with Andrew Rahrig from Marathon Petroleum and walked away with the trophy. Joel’s strategy, in his own words, was simple: “just don’t hit it into the net.” Andrew handled the rest. We say we’re only as good as our customers around here, and this was a pretty literal proof point.
A Capstone Team, 16 Million Records, and One Very Large Dataset
This semester we partnered with the Applied Business Analytics capstone program at the University of Arkansas. Two teams spent the semester analyzing 16 million records and presented ideas on Tank Strategies optimization and Fuel Delivery detection.
They worked through Tableau and SQL to turn raw data into actionable insights.
Big thanks to Alejandro Jordan and Francisco Gumucio on our team for mentoring the group, and to Professors Jacob Yates and EmmaLe Davis for the partnership.
Watching the next generation of analytics talent dig into real fuel industry problems is one of the more energizing things we get to do.
When Fuel Markets Move at War Speed
Recent geopolitical shocks have pushed crude prices, rack prices, and retail movements into something close to real time. Margins disappear in the space where workflows used to live. Pricing teams have the data; what they’re missing is speed.
Our latest article looks at how the right tools keep pricing teams a step ahead, even when fuel markets are at their most volatile.
Thanks for reading the Gravitate Dispatch.
If you saw us at M-PACT, SIGMA, or anywhere in between, it was good to be in the same room with you. And if we haven’t connected yet or you’re interested in learning more about inserting AI into your fuel operations, reach out to our team.
Until next month, The Gravitate team.
