Bob Parsons
Bob Parsons | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1950 Maryland |
| Occupation | Owner of GoDaddy.com |
Bob (Robert) Parsons (born 1950) is an American entrepreneur. He is the CEO and founder of The Go Daddy Group, Inc., a family of companies comprising three ICANN-accredited domain name registrars, including flagship registrar GoDaddy.com, reseller registrar Wild West Domains and Blue Razor Domains. Other affiliated companies include Domains by Proxy Inc., a domain privacy company, and Starfield Technologies, the business's technology development arm.
Childhood
Parsons was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and spent his childhood there. His family lived in Baltimore's inner city and struggled financially. Parsons has said about those days, "I've earned everything I've ever received. Very little was given to me. I've been working as long as I can remember. Whether it was delivering or selling newspapers, pumping gas, working in construction or in a factory, I've always been making my own money."[1] By his own admission, he did not excel academically. Parsons often jokes that he was able to enter the "6th grade with 4th grade skills," after somehow convincing his teacher to let him enter the 6th grade classroom, even though he failed to meet the requirements to pass 5th grade.[2] In the late 1960s, Parsons enlisted in the United States armed forces. Parsons has said that if he had not joined the military, he would not have graduated from high school.
Military service
In 1968, Parsons joined the United States Marine Corps.[3] He was assigned to the 26th Marine Regiment which was attached and operated as part of the U.S. 1st Marine Division. In 1969, he did a tour of duty in Vietnam, serving as a rifleman in the Delta Company of the 1st Battalion, 26th Marines in the Quang Nam Province.[4]
He was wounded on duty, medically evacuated and spent two months at a naval hospital recovering from his wounds. As a result of his service and injury he earned the Combat Action Ribbon, the Vietnam Gallantry Cross, and the Purple Heart.[5]
Education
Parsons obtained an accounting degree in 1975 from the University of Baltimore.[2] He began his long-term career in software as a self-taught programmer.
The University of Baltimore conferred an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree on Bob Parsons 21 May 2008.[6]
Parsons Technology
In 1984, he founded Parsons Technology in Cedar Rapids, IA and began selling MoneyCounts, a home accounting program. In late 1987, Parsons was able to quit his job and focus completely on selling and programming MoneyCounts. Eventually, Parsons Technology grew to be a 1,000-employee privately held company. On September 27, 1994, Parsons completed the sale of Parsons Technology to Intuit for $64 million.[7]
Go Daddy
Parsons is founder and sole investor in the Go Daddy Group.
Guantanamo Bay blog controversy
In June 2005, Parsons generated controversy by saying the interrogation methods the United States is using at Guantanamo "are incredibly mild. All of the prisoners receive regular medical attention. In contrast, Americans who are captured in the Middle East have their heads hacked off".[8][9][10] Following feedback in the comments section of the post, he retracted his statements, saying "After looking at the references...and giving the matter some thought, I tend to agree and think that there's a good argument for changing the way in which prisoners at Gitmo are interrogated."[11]
See also
References
- ^ Bob Parsons blog
- ^ a b Sanders, Monica (2004). "Rags to Riches: Bob Parsons, Founder of GoDaddy.com". LegalZoom. Retrieved 2006-06-02.
- ^ David, Andersen (2006-02-17). "Former Marine, Go Daddy CEO Talks About His Rise to Success". Marine Corps News. Retrieved 2006-06-02.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Draper, John (2005-12-07). "GoDaddy's Remarkable Daddy" ([dead link]). Worthwhile. 1 (6). Retrieved 2006-06-02.
- ^ Jackson, Ron (2004). "Underachiever to Overlord: Go Daddy's Bob Parsons Started Slow Then Built Two Business Empires". Domain Name Journal. Retrieved 2006-06-02.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Larson, Jane (2008-05-28). "Go Daddy extends sponsorship of Danica Patrick". The Arizona Republic. Gannett. Retrieved 2008-05-29.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Form:10-Q". SEC Edgar Filing Information. 1996-06-12. Retrieved 2006-06-02.
- ^ Parsons, Bob (2005-06-19). "Close Gitmo? No Way". Hot Points. Note: page has since been deleted.
- ^ McCarthy, Jamie (2005-06-21). "Why I'm No Longer a GoDaddy Customer". Retrieved 2006-06-02.
- ^ McEvoy, Christopher Sean (2005-06-20). "NoGoDaddy". Retrieved 2006-06-02.
- ^ Anonymous (Tunesmith) (2005-06-20). "GoDaddy president retracts pro-torture blog posting". Retrieved 2006-06-02.
External links
- Bob Parsons — Profile on GoDaddy.com
- BobParsons.me — A blog by Go Daddy CEO and founder Bob Parsons
- Radio Go Daddy (Formerly "Go Daddy Live") — A radio show hosted by Go Daddy CEO and founder Bob Parsons