Founder and chief executive officer, industrial networking technology · Real Time Automation, Inc. (RTA) · Pewaukee, Wisconsin
John S. Rinaldi
John S. Rinaldi, founder and CEO/business-development leader of Pewaukee-based Real Time Automation. Not the late baseball broadcaster John Rinaldi or other executives with the same name.
Net worth
$4 million+
September 17, 2026
About
John Rinaldi founded Real Time Automation in 1989 and built the Pewaukee company around a deceptively difficult promise: make industrial networking simple.
RTA develops gateways and integration products that help factory-floor equipment communicate across protocols, a business that grew from consulting requests Rinaldi received while an electronic-toy venture was struggling.
Rinaldi brought experience from Kimberly-Clark factory controls, Allen-Bradley device development and Procter & Gamble enterprise systems. He earned an electrical-engineering degree at Marquette and a computer-science master's at the University of Connecticut, then translated that technical background into products, support and a deliberately unconventional company culture.
BizTimes recognized him with a 2019 Bravo! Entrepreneur Award and put the company at 25 employees. Rinaldi has also written five practical industrial-networking books covering Ethernet/IP, Modbus and OPC UA. His blend of niche software-hardware intellectual property, 35-plus years of founder tenure and a Pewaukee headquarters makes him one of the batch's strongest under-the-radar technology owners.
Companies and affiliations
- Real Time Automation, Inc. (RTA)
Notable facts
BizTimes named Rinaldi a 2019 Bravo! Entrepreneur Award winner, identified him as RTA's CEO/founder in Pewaukee and reported 25 employees.
RTA says Rinaldi founded the company in 1989 after work spanning Allen-Bradley, Kimberly-Clark and Procter & Gamble automation environments.
RTA's biography lists a Marquette electrical-engineering bachelor's, a UConn computer-science master's and five published industrial-networking books.
What questions can this profile answer
- What makes John S. Rinaldi notable?
- John Rinaldi founded Real Time Automation in 1989 and built the Pewaukee company around a deceptively difficult promise: make industrial networking simple. RTA develops gateways and integration products that help factory-floor equipment communicate across protocols, a business that grew from consulting requests…
- What is John S. Rinaldi's estimated net worth?
- John S. Rinaldi's estimated net worth is $4 million+ as of 2026-09-17.