Kevin Nitka
Kevin Nitka, president and CEO of Guardian Credit Union, found his calling close to home at MATC
While others might have yearned to go away, Kevin Nitka stayed. The Greenfield native sank deep roots and, for the last four decades, has become a fixture in his community. Nitka graduated from Greenfield High School and earned an Accounting degree from MATC, taking his first courses at the college’s Oak Creek Campus on Howell Avenue. Today, more than 40 years later, he’s president and chief executive officer of Guardian Credit Union, managing $300 million in assets and tending to 30,000 depositors from his office on Howell, mere miles from where his career path started. He is also a certified public accountant who has served on the board of several local nonprofit organizations.“I credit everything to my start at MATC,” Nitka said while sitting at his desk in Guardian’s glimmering, glass headquarters. “I have often been in the right place at the right time, but I have never forgotten the things I learned that first year at MATC.”
Nitka, the son of a machinist father and homemaker mother who had previously worked as a bookkeeper, didn’t really know what to do with his life in 1978 after he left high school, a place where he survived and hardly thrived. “I didn’t have great grades in high school, so scholarships were not an option, nor did my parents have a lot of money to send me to college,” he said. “Starting in a two-year program at MATC was right for me. My mom had taken classes at MATC, and my aunt went to MATC. Everyone in the area knew the school.”
Nitka took an introductory accounting class and it was a revelation. He did well in the class and liked the subject. “I never had any idea I wanted to go into accounting until I took that one class,” he recalled. “I hadn’t really applied myself in high school like I should have. Thanks to the great instructors we had in the business division, I applied myself a lot more at MATC.”
A future in finance
There, Nitka experienced two life-changing events: He became an accounting supervisor at Guardian Credit Union and met his future wife, Kathy, in one of his auditing classes. In 1988, he graduated from Lakeland with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a minor in economics. He then passed all four parts of the Uniform CPA Exam on his first attempt — an impressive feat only about 30% of test-takers achieved in the nation at that time.
At Guardian, Nitka steadily moved up. He became vice president of finance, executive vice president and chief financial officer, and then in 2016, he was named the third president at Guardian since 1965. Nitka and nearly 100 other employees are celebrating Guardian’s 90th anniversary this year. In May 2024, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel name the credit union one of the top small-business workplaces in Milwaukee for the sixth year in a row.
“It’s all about having great people around you,” Nitka said. “You can’t do it without great people. We have an incredible team that drives our culture and success, and I believe that makes us a truly special organization.” Now nearing 64, Nitka knows he is close to the end of his career. “We have a strong management team here, we have a good succession plan, and I believe Guardian will be serving our community for many years to come,” he said.
Nitka has plenty of things to do. He owns several dogs, loves baseball, volunteers at his church and in the community, and is keenly interested in history. And, he has considered teaching. In the early 1990s, he taught evening accounting classes at several MATC campuses and at Greenfield High School. He talks up his daughter, Lauren Marie Nitka, an elementary school art teacher and well-regarded artist in Milwaukee. And while he has never been outside of the United States, Nitka and his wife of 34 years enjoy traveling and have visited many states and cities across the country.
Still, he always returns to southeast Wisconsin, the place where he grew up, got educated, learned his craft, and found personal happiness and professional success. “I am so grateful for all the opportunities I have had during my career,” Nitka said. “I have the fondest memories of where it all started at MATC. I’ve had a wonderful career journey.” ■
I credit everything to my start at MATC. I have often been in the right place at the right time, but I have never forgotten the things I learned that first year at MATC.
An introductory accounting class at MATC helped Kevin Nitka discover his aptitude for finance.