Waterstone Mortgage Announces Leadership Promotions Across Multiple Departments

National mortgage lender Waterstone Mortgage Corp. announced on Thursday the promotion of four employees to leadership roles at its home office, elevating executives in capital markets, human resources, information security and financial planning.

The promotions include Casey Seefeldt to vice president of capital markets, Melissa Wagner to vice president of human resources, Scott Howard to director of information security, and Zach McCarthy to director of financial planning and analysis.

Seefeldt has nearly 25 years of experience in mortgage lending and financial services. He joined Waterstone Mortgage in 2014 as a capital markets analyst and was promoted to director of capital markets in early 2021. In that role, he oversaw daily capital markets operations — including pricing, system interface operations, hedging analysis, hedge trading, funded loan commitment trading and reporting.

Seefeldt is a board-authorized trader and holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration with an emphasis in finance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Wagner joined Waterstone in July 2020 as an HR business partner and was promoted to HR manager in 2021, senior HR manager in 2022 and director of human resources in 2023. She previously worked in human resources at a private equity firm and interned at an investment management firm while attending graduate school.

In her new role as VP of human resources, Wagner will continue overseeing the HR team, including employee relations, payroll, benefits, and non-sales recruiting, onboarding and offboarding. She has more than 15 years of HR experience and holds a master’s degree in human resources from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Howard joined Waterstone Mortgage in 2013 as an Encompass help desk employee before moving into an IT role and later transitioning into a newly created cybersecurity position. He helped build the company’s cybersecurity program and will continue to oversee security operations, establish and maintain security policies, and further develop the program as director of information security.

Before entering the mortgage industry, Howard spent 18 years as a certified law enforcement officer. He holds multiple cybersecurity certifications and an associate degree from Waukesha County Technical College while continuing formal cybersecurity education programs.

McCarthy has more than a decade of accounting and financial experience in the mortgage industry. He joined Waterstone in 2024 as senior manager of financial planning and analysis. As director of financial planning and analysis, he will lead branch accounting teams nationwide.

McCarthy previously held branch reporting and analysis roles within the mortgage sector and holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration with an emphasis in accounting from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Founded in 2000, Waterstone Mortgage lends in 48 states. According to Modex data, the company posted a volume of $1.95 billion in the past 12 months.