Waterstone Mortgage president and chief executive officer Andy Peach is resigning nine months after he took the position in August of 2019.
WaterStone Bank president and CEO Doug Gordon will lead the Pewaukee-based mortgage company in the interim, the company announced Monday. Peach, who lives in North Carolina, will move on to work for an undisclosed company that is not in competition with Waterstone Mortgage, Gordon added.
“We appreciate the contributions Andy made to Waterstone Mortgage and wish him well in his future endeavors,” Gordon said. Our executive team is comprised of accomplished leaders with extensive experience in the mortgage lending industry, and they will continue, as they have for many years, to guide and grow Waterstone Mortgage while we search for a new president and CEO.”
Peach marks the mortgage company’s third CEO since 2018 when company founder Eric Egenhoefer left Waterstone Mortgage. A.W. Pickel III succeeded Egenhoefer as CEO, but was
terminated after less than a year with the company.
Five months later, Peach was named CEO.
Egenhoefer went on to launch his own mortgage company, Novus Home Mortgage, which was
recently acquired by Ixonia Bank.
When asked about the turnover of CEOs at the company, Gordon said Waterstone Mortgage has great leadership and called the most recent transition a “non-event.” Peach was just gaining traction at the company, which made the news disappointing, Gordon said.
“We’ve got a strong executive team and I have a lot of experience and I’ll take over as CEO in the interim but we’ll do an exhaustive search and find someone,” Gordon said.
Founded in 2000, Waterstone Mortgage is a wholly-owned subsidiary of WaterStone Bank SSB, which in turn, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Waterstone Financial, Inc. The mortgage company, which lends in 48 states, surpassed $2.9 billion in loan origination volume in 2019.