Bob Parsons

Parsons was born in Baltimore, Maryland. His mother was a homemaker, while his father worked as a furniture salesman for Montgomery Ward.

After nearly flunking out of high school, Parsons enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He was assigned to the 26th Marine Regiment, which was attached to the 1st Marine Division. In 1969, he served as a rifleman in the Delta Company of the 1st Battalion, 26th Marines, during a tour of duty in Vietnam, in the Quảng Nam Province.

He was wounded in action and medically evacuated, then 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.

In 1975, Parsons earned an accounting degree from the University of Baltimore, graduating magna cum laude. He then began his career in the IT and software sales industry.

The University of Baltimore conferred an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree on May 21, 2008.

In 2012, Bob and Renee Parsons established the Bob and Renee Parsons Foundation. Since then, the Foundation has awarded to more than 96 charities and organizations worldwide. A third of the total money awarded has been spent in local Arizona charities.

They joined Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett's The Giving Pledge in 2010 and agreed to donate half their wealth to charity. Since its inception, the foundation has donated over $10 million on a yearly basis, placing it among the state's 10 biggest givers.

The foundations main focus areas can be categorized in disaster relief, veterans, and the Phoenix community. After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, The foundation pledged $500 thousand for Hope for Haiti and a further $4 million towards relief efforts. The Bob and Renee Parsons Foundation has supported several veterans' organizations, mainly the Semper Fi Fund, with donations exceeding $8.5 million, mostly in the form of matching donations. In or around Phoenix, Arizona, it has donated more than $8 million to United Methodist Outreach Centers (UMOM) and its New Day Centers, which the organization spent in part to pay off the mortgage for one of its biggest facilities. It has also donated at least $10 million to the Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS, helping it open its new center. It is also donor to the Obama Foundation, having given more than $1 million to the foundation.

Other projects the foundation was involved with include the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, which amounted to three grants totaling $3.7 million to upgrade its laser system; the Girl Scouts through the Girl Scouts Beyond Bars program; $4 million in scholarship funds for theDream.us; a $1.5 million grant to the Phoenix Children's Hospital in support of one of its community outreach programs; $1 million towards the Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center; $1.4 million for the Murphy Kids Dental Clinic; and $2 million to Circle the City, in order for the organization to launch a new primary healthcare center.

Parsons is a registered Independent.

In 2012, Parsons donated $1 million to Restore Our Future, Mitt Romney's Super PAC.

On December 8, 2016, Parsons donated $1 million to the 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee.

In 2011, Parsons was criticized by animal rights and other groups for tweeting a video in which he shoots and kills an elephant on a safari in Zimbabwe. According to Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora elephants are listed as Schedule II. Parsons was unapologetic and believed the controversy would not harm his company.

GoDaddy was criticized as sexist for advertising practices between its first Super Bowl ad in 2005 through the company's IPO in 2014. He used his blog to draw attention to ads that were rejected from television as too racy.