For the fourth year in a row, PESI has been named the area’s No. 1 employer. The professional development and continuing education business has been serving folks since 1979. Royal Credit Union, an Eau Claire-made organization with roots connected to Uniroyal, has made this category’s top three for about a dozen years. Chippewa Falls’ Mason Companies, Inc. breaks into this category for its first time, a longtime business and employer with its origin found in our area’s lumber days. —McKenna Scherer