Blake Irving is the CEO and Board Director of GoDaddy, the world’s largest platform for small business. Under Mr. Irving’s direction, the company has sharpened its focus on helping the world’s 200 million small, independent ventures to grow and thrive online—tapping a global-scale machine learning platform that powers their digital presence, communications, marketing, commerce, back-office administration and peer/community support.
Prior to GoDaddy, Mr. Irving was EVP and Chief Product Officer at Yahoo!, a role in which he grew active users from 550 million to nearly one billion users—positioning Yahoo! to repass Google and Facebook as the world’s most popular online destination.
Before Yahoo!, Mr. Irving spent 15 years at Microsoft in various senior roles, most recently as head of the Windows Live Platform where he was responsible for research, development and operations of Microsoft’s global cloud services. While at Microsoft, Mr. Irving created and grew MSN Messenger into the world’s most successful instant messaging platform with more than 70% global share, re-architected and grew Hotmail to 270 million users worldwide, and deployed their first billion dollar advertising system, adExpert.
A technology pioneer for more than 30 years, Mr. Irving began his career at Xerox in 1981 during the heyday of PARC labs. He has since been at the forefront of innovation, having played a hand in numerous products and services that are now staples of the Internet, including computer typography, communications on the personal computer, online subscription services, digital advertising, and massive-scale services platforms known collectively today as “the cloud.”
Mr. Irving is a graduate of San Diego State University and received an MBA degree from Pepperdine University, where he later served as a professor of business in the same graduate school. He is an avid cyclist, surfer and golfer—and currently resides in San Luis Obispo, CA. with his wife and two sons. Keep up-to-date with Blake at www.BlakesBlog.com
New Rules II: Business Engagement
How will the structure and management of businesses, industries and institutions change as technologies and the social landscape shift? No organization will exist in its current form in 20 years. How dramatically will IoT, VR and AI force a reimagining of business models? What kinds of companies, industries and organizational structures will emerge?
Conferences
Techonomy 16
MANkind’s evolving relationship with tools and MACHINES is nothing new. But the speed at which we, and everything around us, are becoming more closely connected and NETWORKed is.
