Veteran Owned: Hunt Companies

From the hardships of military life, challenges of navigating parenthood, and unpredictable economic changes, Juan and Amie Gonzales have overcome a lot in their lives. Through every obstacle however, they remained committed to their community and each other. 

As the President of Hunt Companies, Inc. Amie views her team as a family and is dedicated to leading them to success. Juan supports her as the Chief Financial Officer for the company, creating strategies to ensure they make it through every obstacle. While their success with Hunt Companies is impressive, it is their continued dedication to serving their community that makes Juan and Amie such admirable leaders.

In 1986, Amie’s father, Dennis Hunt, began a construction business known as Hunt Construction Services. The name was later changed in 1992 to Hunt Companies, Inc. 

Growing up, Amie always enjoyed learning about her father’s business and thought about the possibility of taking over for him. When she graduated high school, Amie earned an associate’s degree from Herkimer Community College. She then continued working with her father, until an army recruiter tracked her down in the parking lot. Dennis was a Navy veteran and Amie had always wondered if she could make it in the military. She decided to take the leap and enlisted in the Navy, vice the Army. 

Like Amie, Juan’s father was also a veteran having served in the Army. For him, enlisting in the military was a way out of the neighborhood, and provided more opportunities for his life. He participated in a
buddy program with three of his friends and joined the Navy two weeks after high school. 

While in the Navy, Amie was a journalist writing stories that would be distributed worldwide. She also did some videography work and photography. Eventually, the Navy combined the photographers, journalists, and lithographers to create mass communication specialists. Amie continued producing stories, photos, and videos for various media outlets. She spent most of her time on the east coast, but was deployed several times.  Juan was in the yeoman rating, where he managed a lot of different administration and finance functions. 

“They sent me to Hawaii for three years as an 18 year old kid, and everybody asks why I stayed in the Navy for that long? It’s because they sent me to Hawaii for three years,” Juan shared. 

At about his 10 year mark in the Navy, Juan joined the flag writer program. While in this program, he managed the offices of senior Navy and Joint leaders. 

He shared that this role was, “Where I honed all of my office manager skills, change management and process improvement skills, financing, budgeting… All that really was a great pathway walking into Hunt Companies.”  

Juan and Amie met in Millington, Tennessee — the home of Navy personnel commands. This was Amie’s first active duty station following her schooling and also where the two began their relationship. However, the military lifestyle meant that being together consisted of quite a bit of time apart. They spent hours driving to see each other on weekends when Juan was stationed in the Pentagon and Amie in Norfolk, VA and communicated as often as they could. 

“Because we were both active duty, we both understood the lifestyle, we understood what sacrifices had to be made on both sides and we were willing to do that. We had trust and faith in each other,” said Amie. 

Eventually the two were married and welcomed their son Ethan into the world. This made being long distance even more difficult, and there was a period of time while Amie was deployed that Juan had to care for Ethan himself. Juan shared that, through the challenges, he and Amie often referred back to the quote by Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi, who said, “Once you agree upon the price you and your family must pay for success, it enables you to ignore the minor hurts, the opponent’s pressure, and the temporary failures.” Having served an eight year long career in the military, Amie decided that she would leave in order to be with her son.

Once she left the Navy, she began working remotely and focused on getting her master’s degree from Strayer University. She then returned to her father’s business and found that the skills she had acquired in the military helped her be successful at the job. “The experiences from the service, the leadership that we learned— the accountability, determination, all those things that the service teaches you— directly applied to what we were doing here at Hunt Companies and really helped us refine what my father had started,” Amie shared.  

Juan continued in the Navy for 20 years before retiring, but not before he earned his master’s degree. “When we came up here, I was happy to be retired and didn’t have any plans. I wanted to be the first confirmed Washington county sasquatch and started growing out my beard and my hair,” he joked. However, the plan changed in 2015 when Denny and Amie brought him on as the Chief Financial Officer for Hunt Companies. 

While HCI had many successes, they experienced a major loss when their biggest customer stopped construction that year. “In one phone call, 8 million dollars worth of work disappeared for the year with us not knowing where the work was going to come from,” explained Juan. Luckily, they were able to resolve the conflict and not lay off a single employee, but they realized the importance of having a backup plan and not relying on one customer for too much of their income. As a result, when the pandemic hit in 2020, Juan, Amie, and her brother Jason, the Vice President and Operations Manager, were prepared and refined the plan they had created. 

“When Covid hit in 2020 we were actually ready for it, we just dusted off the book, made some tweaks to it and actually kept our plan on how to survive a tough year,” said Juan. They were able to get through the difficult time without letting go of anyone on their team. Today, the company continues to thrive and Amie, Jason, and Juan are working on continuing to build a strong foundation for the future of Hunt Companies. “My main goal is just continuing to strengthen the foundation,” said Amie. 

While the two are extremely proud of how far Hunt Companies has come, their biggest achievement has been the impact they’ve had on their community. “When you find that level of success, you have to give back to the community that you’re in. America has survived 240-plus years because you’ve always given some to the next generation,” said Juan. Amie feels the same way saying, “Our businesses and our communities will thrive when they invest in each other.” Recently, Amie took over as the Chair for the SUNY Adirondack Board of Trustees and Juan is the Chairman for the Warren/Washington County Industrial Development Agency. 

“To be able to run two chairs in one family on vital community boards here is special to us personally and shows people you have to stay involved even sometimes when you do get a little tired,” shared Juan. 

When they are not busy giving back to their community or running Hunt Companies, Juan and Amie love traveling. They still keep in touch with friends from the military and enjoy visiting them when they can.
“With military buddies, you pickup where you last left off, it doesn’t matter if it’s one day or ten years,” Juan shared. The two also have bees that they care for and spend time outside gardening. In the future, they are looking forward to retiring and preparing to see how Hunt Companies grows under the next generation. 

Photos Provided.