It’s the world’s largest domain name registrar and cloud platform dedicated to small, independent ventures. It has nearly 17 million customers worldwide, over 71 million domain names under management and over 6,000 employees around the world. And it’s CEO of the last 4.5 years, Blake Irving, has announced he will be stepping down and retiring at the end of 2017, days short of what would have been his fifth anniversary.
Scott Wagner, GoDaddy's president and chief operating officer, will assume the CEO role upon Blake's departure. Irving will continue to serve on GoDaddy's Board of Directors through June 2018.
Under his leadership, GoDaddy has grown from 55 million DUM to more than 71 million, grown from $1 billion in annual revenue to $1.88 billion with $1 billion in domain bookings for 2016, launched an initial public offering and now has localised solutions in 56 markets.
“After more than three decades in technology, I've decided it's time to retire and begin the next phase of my life,” said Blake Irving, GoDaddy CEO. “Over the last five years, we've assembled a seasoned and diverse leadership team, and expanded our reach around the world, now serving customers in 125 countries with purpose-build products – all while doubling our revenue and profits. GoDaddy's trajectory is clear and our momentum strong. It is the perfect time to transition leadership to Scott Wagner. I couldn't be prouder of what the company has accomplished, and I am equally excited about what the company will achieve under Scott's leadership.”
Wagner joined GoDaddy in 2013, after a 13-year tenure at KKR, where he served as a partner. Wagner was a key member of the team that invested in GoDaddy in 2011, serving as GoDaddy's interim CEO, and then joined the company's leadership team as CFO and COO when Irving became CEO. Wagner was promoted to the role of President in 2016, with expanded responsibility across go-to-market channels, including marketing, customer care, international markets, and corporate development.
“GoDaddy is truly a unique company, and I'm honored to serve as the next CEO,” said Scott Wagner, GoDaddy president and chief operating officer. “GoDaddy has become the starting place for getting an idea online, and we've been incredibly successful with nearly 17 million customers around the world. There remains a huge strategic opportunity for GoDaddy – innovating across our product portfolio and technical platform, engaging more frequently with our existing customers, and continuing to serve new geographic markets and customer segments. I look forward to the next wave of GoDaddy's evolution and to creating a unique, category-creating cloud software company that enables ideas to start and thrive online.”
“We'd like to thank Blake for the tremendous contributions he's made over the last five years – his impact will be long felt,” said Chuck Robel, GoDaddy Chairman of the Board. “The board is extremely confident that under Scott's leadership, GoDaddy will continue to have an incredibly bright and successful future.”
Before coming to GoDaddy in 2013, Irving was EVP and Chief Product Officer at Yahoo!, where he expanded monthly users to nearly one billion, launched 180 new Yahoo! websites worldwide and rolled out products in 23 languages and 30 new markets.
Prior to Yahoo!, he spent 15 years at Microsoft creating world-changing consumer products like NetMeeting, MSN Messenger and growing Hotmail to the largest mail service in the world. As Corporate Vice President of the Windows Live Platform, Irving led the company’s global Internet development and operations, managing a $1 billion global R&D budget and overseeing development teams in the US, India, China and Europe.
Irving began his career at Xerox and Compaq and has been a professor at Pepperdine’s School of Business.
For GoDaddy, Irving and Wagner will work closely together through the end of the year, as they transition CEO leadership to Wagner.