Pennsylvania Congressman Dan Meuser officially a candidate for House speaker

Oct. 23—Richard Aulenbach III had always been close with his father, but he never imagined working alongside him.

His father, Richard Aulenbach II, founded RPA Engineering, 400 Spring Ridge Drive in Spring Township, Berks County, after leaving his role as a project manager with Gilbert/Commonwealth Inc., a large engineering consulting firm in Cumru Township.

"Gilbert/Commonwealth was mainly in the nuclear arena. Nuclear was having trouble...pharmaceuticals were coming to him and looking for help, but management at that time wasn't interested. They would take the projects, but they weren't excited," Richard Aulenbach III said, adding that his father's thought was "I like this. I can do it for cheaper...I can define success as the client succeeding."

The willingness to embrace a drastic career change is shared between father and son — the younger Aulenbach left behind a successful career in finance and marketing in search of fulfillment.

"I was traveling a lot and we were starting a family...I had to make a decision if I wanted to be home enough for my kids...I just wasn't fulfilled," he said. "On the other side, my father was jammed up with a piece he thought was missing."

The solution was obvious: Richard Aulenbach III started at RPA in 2012 in the marketing department.

Nearly 12 years later, in July, he assumed the role of president, with his father staying on as CEO.

The younger Aulenbach's previous role was vice president of business development, growing the company's revenue and facilitating an expansion of RPA's already substantial client base.

"What always attracted me to RPA was the client base. (We have) a 32-year relationship with the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmith Kline, a company that's been through six mergers, Pfizer, Carpenter Technology, East Penn Manufacturing, Linde, Intel, The University of Pennsylvania, I could go on," he said.

In an Oct. 9 press release, Richard Aulenbach II expressed faith in his son's track record.

"Rick has worked with me side by side for over a decade," he said. "His demonstrated success in our most competitive market arenas, along with his ability to quickly understand how to satisfy people's needs, both internally and externally, give me great confidence in his leadership."

The younger Aulenbach said his vision for the company centers on fostering growth in major cities, expanding portfolios in semiconductors, industrial gases, batteries and food and beverage, maintaining robustness in metals and pharmaceuticals, and hiring and training the best engineers.

Breadth of services

RPA is unique in the breadth of services it offers, particularly for an engineering firm of its size, Richard Aulenbach III noted — the firm employs 80 engineers across six offices in Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and Washington.

"A firm our size typically would be structural only, or controls only, or MEP (mechanical electrical and plumbing) only," he said. "What differentiates us is we have the right folks, and we can get in any boardroom in the world, we're nimble in size so we don't have masses of overhead, and we have structural, controls and MEP in house...everything under one roof."

The company offers engineering and design solutions across a range of industries: Pharmaceutical and biotech, power, industrial and manufacturing, building systems, food and beverage, and automation and process control.

Its projects range in value from $1 million to $60 million, according to the company's website.

One of RPA's projects involved being among the first engineering firms to put two collaborative robots in an aseptic environment, for global pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. Inc.

"They were universal robots procured by Merck. We had to integrate them, program them to do their job," Richard Aulenbach III said. "That was a major project."

Another notable endeavor is the company's involvement in the electric vehicle battery storage business.

"We're doing everything from process engineering to building out the spaces allowing for power distribution, along with the energy storage components," he added.

Many of RPA's projects deal with dangerous substances, such as a project in Taiwan that deals with synthetic gases.

"These are gases that are extremely hazardous, if they touch oxygen they'll explode," he said. "We've done studies that say you'll need 100-foot glass walls...safety walls have to be 100 feet thick in case this thing explodes."

RPA has also worked on more than 4,000 labs and clean rooms for biotech and life sciences, from human biologics, to oncology, to liquid and solid dose pharmaceuticals.

"Laboratories, clean rooms, that's a big deal to us, right now...we're alongside some of the largest biotech companies, in terms of everything from building their corporate headquarters to high stress piping and project engineering," he said.

Building a legacy

RPA has come a long way since its early days in 1989, when the elder Aulenbach was working largely solo, working out of an apartment, according to his son.

Today, Richard Aulenbach III is motivated by the idea of continuing his father's legacy.

Part of that legacy is RPA's commitment to its employees, and a company culture that values its people.

"The people are just fantastic. They have an entrepreneurial spirit...we're playing in these major arenas...competing against firms that have 20,000 engineers, and we're winning," he said.

That success stems from making workers feel like they're part of a family — a tradition he said began with his father.

To see the pride and our folks go above and beyond for their clients, it amazes me, it humbles me," Richard Aulenbach III said. "When I was vice president of business development, I said I have 100 clients first and foremost, those are my coworkers."