This year marks two major milestones for Matthew Holtkamp. It marks 25 years married to his wife, Suzanne, and 25 years heading up Holtkamp Heating and Air in Suwanee, Georgia. The couple started the HVAC firm shortly after their wedding in 1995. Holtkamp said he would have started the company sooner, but he didn’t want to answer calls during the honeymoon.
The Holtkamps both moved to the Atlanta area from the Midwest. Matthew Holtkamp came to work in HVAC in 1985 after receiving his degree from a community college in Iowa. He said the only person he ever met up to that time who wasn’t from Iowa had grown up in Georgia. Iowa was struggling with farm foreclosures, and Holtkamp faced limited options for employment. He called his friend, who had moved back to Georgia, and asked if his firm was hiring. Since Gwinnett County was the fastest growing county in the U.S. at the time, the answer was “Yes.”