GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving in the company’s Kirkland, Wash., office. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)

GoDaddy announced Tuesday that its CEO Blake Irving is retiring from his role at the domain name giant. Irving’s last day as CEO will be Dec. 31 and he will remain on the company’s board of directors through June 2018.

The company, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., has a large presence in the Seattle region. Irving will be succeeded by the company’s COO and President Scott Wagner, who first joined the company as its interim CEO in 2012 and has served as its COO for the past four years.

GoDaddy COO and President Scott Wagner will succeed Irving as CEO. (Photo via LinkedIn)

Irving took the reins as CEO almost five years ago. His tenure has included the launch and expansion of GoDaddy’s Kirkland, Wash., engineering center, which now employs more than 220 people.

Under his watch, the company has gone public, doubled its revenues, and expanded into 56 countries, 29 new languages and 43 different currencies. GoDaddy has also left its controversial Super Bowl ads behind in favor of funny and inspirational pitches for the company’s small business services.

Irving previously held executive positions at Yahoo and Microsoft. He spent 15 years at the Redmond tech giant, ultimately serving as the corporate vice president overseeing the Windows Live Platform Group.

“After more than three decades in technology, I’ve decided it’s time to retire and begin the next phase of my life,” Irving said in a statement. “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.”

The release did not specify if Irving plans to take on a new role in a different arena or retire entirely. In a post on LinkedIn, Irving wrote, “Yep, after 35 years of late nights and long travel in tech it’s time to focus on the GoDaddy board and new adventures w/ my wife Carol.”

“GoDaddy is truly a unique company, and I’m honored to serve as the next CEO,” Wagner said a statement. “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.”

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