14 DAY TRIAL // Internet domain registrar and web hosting company GoDaddy is set to radically shift the global economy toward small businesses and is a vocal advocate for women in technology. No wonder, then, that it has appointed Betsy Rafael to its board of directors.
The former Chief Accounting Officer of Apple Inc, and Finance VP at Cisco Systems, Rafael has three decades of experience in finance and operations at numerous companies, including Ernst & Young, Sun, SGI, Escalate, and Aspect Communications.
GoDaddy reveals that Ms. Rafael is the company’s first woman board member, though the firm already has a number of high-ranking women on its payroll, including Chief Technical Officer Elissa Murphy, Chief Marketing Officer Barb Rechterman, Chief Communications Officer Karen Tillman, and General Counsel Nima Kelly.
Rafael is currently on two other corporate boards, at Echelon and Autodesk, respectively. She recently attended her first GoDaddy board meeting in Scottsdale and had the following to say about her upcoming tenure.
“The GoDaddy mission to help small businesses, entrepreneurs and go getters is inspiring. GoDaddy is one of those special companies with a purpose-built global platform that only a handful of technology organizations can claim. It has the power of an established company with the energy of a start-up, and I was drawn to become part of what GoDaddy is doing, and to help the team build on the tremendous momentum that’s underway.”
Also a member of the compensation committee at Echelon and the Board of Trustees at Santa Clara University (her alma mater), Rafael is one of the few women filling a board seat at several Fortune 500 companies.
Blake Irving, GoDaddy’s CEO, prides himself on being a vocal advocate for women in technology throughout his career, having been involved with the Society of Women Engineers and the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing for years.
Irving helped spawn the GoDaddy Women in Technology organization and helped sponsor Womensphere. This year, GoDaddy wants to join the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology.
Irving said, “Betsy brings with her insight and experience which is unmatched in our industry and I couldn’t be more pleased to have her onboard. She is a seasoned leader and a phenomenal financial executive who understands scaling financial operations across the globe.”
In June of 2012, Apple revealed in an SEC filing that Vice President and Corporate Controller Betsy Rafael would be retiring on October 19 that year. She had been an instrumental member of Apple’s finance team.