Personal Success Stories

These are the personal stories of local, national or international individuals who are residing in Eau Claire.  Each of them has taken a risk in the business world while living in Eau Claire and for each one of them, that chance has been successfully paid off.  We applaud these individuals and all others that take similar risks.

Toni Hudzina
Gerald Bauer

Toni Hudzina ▲

Toni Hudzina is not your typical Eau Claire resident. For starters, Toni was not born and raised in the open fields of the Midwest region. Instead, Toni spent most of her life in the hustle and bustle of Washington D.C. However, due to a transfer in her husband's company in 2004, Toni and her husband made the decision to leave the capital city and relocate to Eau Claire. While they loved D.C. area, Eau Claire seemed like the perfect place to get away from the traffic, pollution and high living costs of Washington. Says Toni in regards to why she feels Eau Claire is a place that allows her to relax and breathe, "the low crime rate is fabulous, it's nice to not have to always make sure there's not some sort of protest in town to avoid, you don't get stuck behind a diplomatic motorcade that is blocking traffic, or have to go through yet another metal detector or security check when you are entering a building."

Another factor that distinguishes Toni from the rest is that she is an Internet consultant who owns her own business, Applied Interfaces. Her business provides a range of services, from developing custom web sites for small and medium businesses, to more specialized services that improve certain aspects of the web site that the average person sees. Toni is a firm believer in making web sites that are logical for the intended target audience. That is to say, she makes her sites simple enough for those businesses not needing the cutting edge technology, which saves them on costs and allows them to maintain the site themselves. Along with all of this, Toni is an evangelist for web site accessibility to the handicapped and advocates the use of the Internet as a tool that every person should be able to use. When it comes to Toni, Eau Claire benefits not only from her expertise in web site development but from the fresh, outside perspective she brings.

Gerald Bauer ▲

JB Systems was founded in 2001 by Gerald Bauer, a young entrepreneur who at the time was still working on graduating high school. Upon graduating valedictorian in 2002 from Eau Claire Memorial Highschool, Gerald traveled to Austin, Texas where he attended NexTech - The National Summit of Young Technology Leaders. It was there that he met the high-profile technology gurus such as Nicholas Donofrio - Senior VP of IBM and Tim Berners-Lee (the founder of HTML), who inspired him to return to the Chippewa Valley with aspirations of creating a world-class website development firm and hub for web-based technologies.

Since then, JB Systems has added 3 staff members and has a client base of over 100. In 2007, JB Systems was highlighted for their services in Practical Web Design - a noted industry trade magazine based out of the UK. In 2008 more awards followed with JB Systems being recognized by Goldline Research as one of the "Top 10 Most Dependable"® Web Developers in the Central United States - a recognition that was featured in "Entrepreneur Magazine". All the recognition and awards have come from JB Systems, LLC working hard to "Set The Standard" in the Chippewa Valley and beyond for creative website design, graphic design, and programming services.

Despite Geralds travels and opportunities to locate JB Systems elsewhere, he felt a strong connection to his hometown of Eau Claire. To him, Eau Claire is a growing city with ever-increasing potential for technology services, web-based and beyond. The small business economy in Eau Claire seems to be well sheltered compared to the economy as a whole because even though Eau Claire doesn't always necessarily see the highs of every economic cycle, it more importantly doesn't get dragged into the lows. What makes the city even more appealing to him is that the cost of doing business is far less than other parts of the country - and as JB Systems continues to acquire customers in other target markets outside of the area, their prices are incredibly competitive, thus helping them win a majority of bids.

Even though Eau Claire makes a great place for Gerald to run JB Systems, the business environment is not the only reason for Gerald's choice of headquartering in Eau claire. He enjoys the highly rated school district along with the abundance of natural parks, trails, and entertainment venues such as Phoenix Park and Carson Park. Furthermore, Gerald enjoys the opportunities for cummunity related activities that Eau Claire provides through organizations such as the Chamber, The Chippewa Valley Home Builders Association, Business Networks International (BNI), DECI, and more. To Gerald, the business environment coupled with the community and entertainment aspects makes Eau Claire the perfect place to balance work and life.

Send us your reason for choosing Eau Claire to: beckeld@eauclairewi.gov