Lou Rinaldi (businessman)

Rinaldi was born in Italy but his family emigrated to Uruguay when he was four and a half years old where he lived with his six siblings and parents on a ranch in Villa Colón, Montevideo.^[1] There he completed his primary studies at School No. 124 in Melilla and School No. 127 in Pueblo Ferrocarril.^[2] He graduated from the University of Labor of Uruguay as a mechanical turner.^[1] He and his family emigrated to the United States when he was nineteen where he worked in construction in New York.^[1]

In 1975, he started his own construction company known as Louis Rinaldi Inc.^[1]

In December 2024, then President-elect Donald Trump named Rinaldi as his nominee for ambassador to Uruguay.^[3][4] He presented his credentials to President Yamandú Orsi on September 30, 2025.

He met his wife, Lauretta, in the 1970s when she was teaching him English. They live in Westchester County, New York.^[1]

In 2013, one of his four children died at the age of 28.^[1]

Rinaldi frequently visits Uruguay and is a supporter of Uruguayan soccer team Peñarol.^[1]

Rinaldi met future President Donald Trump at a golf course in the summer of 1993. He knew Trump did not like shaking hands, due to hygiene reasons, while playing golf, so he told Trump that he was only going to shake his hand because they shared the same birthday, June 14.^[1][4]

Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou called Rinaldi in June 2020 after he had played a golf match with Trump to greet him for his birthday.^[5]