Meet Ken. The Offline AI Expert.
Fifty years of building. Fifteen years in the Fortune 500.
"I never stopped working with the technology. While other executives moved into pure management, I kept coding, kept experimenting, and kept building."
A career that points in one direction: offline.
Ken Rheingans has been building technology since 1976. He has written real-time firmware at a major Los Angeles aerospace and defense contractor, co-founded technology startups, and led software teams of over 100 engineers. He rose to VP Global Information Services at a $20B Fortune 500 company operating in 70 countries.
Look closely at that career and a pattern emerges. Real-time firmware that had to run with zero network dependency. Defense systems where data could not leave the perimeter. Offline and locally controlled was never a niche for Ken. It was simply how serious systems were built.
When generative AI arrived, the rest of the industry rushed to the cloud. Ken did the opposite. He brought it home.
What makes Burritt Center the Offline AI Experts is not a tagline. It's the work.
Offline AI
Every Burritt Center product runs without an internet connection. No cloud fallback, no "phone home," no degraded mode. Ken proves this on real hardware every day.
AI Privacy
Runs with no internet connection. No accounts, no tracking, no cloud transcripts. Ken spent years in IT consulting helping companies design and ship software that worked offline by default, and brings that same discipline to every Burritt Center product.
Local LLM Performance
Quantization, model selection, inference tuning, and hardware fit. Ken has personally benchmarked dozens of open-source models across CPU, consumer GPU, and edge silicon to find what actually works at each price point.
Custom Offline AI Builds
Under the Executive Retainer, Ken helps companies design and ship their own offline AI products, internal tools, and fully offline workflows. The same craftsmanship that built the Burritt Center product line, applied to your problem.
An AI lab above a garage. A 135-year-old barn. A pond. A name from a one-room schoolhouse.
How it started
The Burritt Center was founded in 2017 from a 42-acre former dairy farm in southeast Wisconsin, featuring a 135-year-old barn. It is named after Burritt Center School, the one-room schoolhouse Ken attended for first, second, and third grade in rural northern Illinois. It was one of the last operating one-room schoolhouses in the state. One teacher, no internet, and everything you needed to learn in a single room. The original offline classroom, and a fitting namesake for the Offline AI Experts.
The lab
During the COVID lockdown, Ken built an AI lab above his garage and started running AI on everything from low-power single-board computers to multi-GPU workstations. Every product ships only after it runs reliably across multiple classes of hardware.
What comes out of the lab
The lab is where every Burritt Center product is tested, broken, and rebuilt until it runs reliably offline. Each product pairs carefully chosen models with curated libraries, then gets stress-tested against the conditions it was built for: weeks without internet.
The philosophy
Be practical. Be honest. Prove it works without the cloud. Executives and product teams deserve an advisor who has actually built what they are being asked to advise on, not someone who presents about AI but never ships it.
Five decades of building. One thread running through it.
From assembly code in 1976 to running modern LLMs on his own hardware in 2026. The work has always been about owning what you build and running it on infrastructure you control.
First lines of code
Assembly code, before Microsoft was incorporated and before Apple shipped its first kit computer.
Fortran on IBM 360 mainframe
Fortran programming on IBM 360 mainframes.
University of Illinois & Wang Labs
At the University of Illinois on DEC VAX 11/780 systems, programming in Fortran for the Atmospheric Science research department. Same year, joined Wang Laboratories developing in assembly code for the Wang PC.
NowWeather Inc. co-founder and VP
Co-founded NowWeather Inc. Built and led a team of 15 developing real-time weather detection systems in C on the first real UNIX computers from AT&T, the 3B2. Served as Vice President from 1984 to 1986.
Aviotex Corp, VP
Vice President at Aviotex Corp, a flight planning software startup. Early experience building technology products from the ground up.
Hughes Aircraft, Technical Supervisor, Image and Signal Processing Lab
Technical Supervisor in the Image and Signal Processing Laboratory at Hughes Aircraft in Los Angeles. Real-time firmware development for infrared camera systems using a custom 96-bit processor. Led field tests of night vision systems. Disconnected from the outside world by necessity, decades before it became a buzzword.
Compuware, Software Engineering Project Manager
Built and led a group of 45 engineers. Championed a zero-defect software initiative for enterprise client delivery.
Computer Solutions, Founder
Founded personal software company delivering products for law enforcement (including the U.S. Marshals Service) and the real estate industry. Operated through 1998.
Whittman-Hart, Director and Global Business Development Director
Rose through leadership at Whittman-Hart (later marchFIRST), one of the nation's premier technology consulting firms, peaking at approximately 10,000 consultants across 60+ offices worldwide. Held roles including Director of Custom Applications, National Solution Director reporting to the COO, and Global Business Development Director reporting to the CEO.
Silvertrain, Practice Director, Milwaukee
Practice Director for the Milwaukee office of Silvertrain, a technology consulting firm.
Stratagem, Director of Consulting Services
Director of Consulting Services at Stratagem, a technology consulting firm.
Fortune 500 Company, IT Director
Joined a $20B Fortune 500 workforce solutions company operating in 70 countries, as IT Director.
Sr. Director, Global IS
Promoted to Sr. Director, leading global IT transformation initiatives across international operations of the same Fortune 500 company.
VP Global Information Services
Led global IT transformation at Fortune 500 scale. Drove a 50% reduction in IT spend saving tens of millions annually, consolidated three data centers, deployed a collaboration platform to 35,000 users, and delivered IT strategy at the board level.
Founded The Burritt Center, LLC
Launched executive advisory practice.
Global ERP Assessment, Burritt Center engagement
Engaged through The Burritt Center to conduct a global ERP assessment for a Fortune 500 company.
Interim CIO/SVP, Burritt Center engagement
Engaged through The Burritt Center as Interim CIO/SVP for a $3-4B division of a Fortune 500 company. Served for 15 months and won "most improved department."
Corporate AI R&D leader, Burritt Center engagement
Engaged through The Burritt Center to lead corporate AI/ML research and development initiatives for a Fortune 500 company. The first turn toward AI on owned infrastructure.
Partner, 7Rivers
Joined 7Rivers as Partner in Technology Innovation, delivering enterprise AI and data solutions.
Executive AI engagements and product development
Continued executive AI advisory engagements. Developed the Burritt Center AI commercial product. Launched the Innovation League, a non-profit initiative to help young adults leverage AI in their careers.
The Offline AI Experts
Rebranded the practice as The Offline AI Experts. Launched the Burritt Center commercial product line. Expanded the Executive Retainer to include consulting for companies adopting AI offline or building their own offline AI products.
Sharing what I'm building.
Ken presents regularly on offline AI, local LLM performance, AI privacy, and the tools reshaping enterprise technology. Most events are hosted by The Innovation League in Milwaukee.
5:30 to 7:30 PM
The Current AI Landscape
Networking, latest AI trends, and what Ken is building. Keynote demonstration with Joshua Kozlowski.
Is Vibe Coding Dead? & Speed Networking
Fun With AI & Practical Agentic AI
Intro to AI Agents & Extended Networking
Prompt & Context Engineering
Locally Hosting Your Own LLM (AI)
Offline isn't a feature here. It's the entire thesis.
The lab proved that real, useful AI does not require an expensive cloud bill, a recurring subscription, or sending your data to someone else's servers. That conviction is now the entire focus of the company: offline products you can buy, and consulting engagements that help your team adopt AI offline or build their own offline AI products. Cloud AI is convenient. Offline AI is sovereign.