Lowe’s Cos. announced Monday that Chief Executive Officer Robert Niblock plans to retire after 25 years at the company. Lowe’s shares closed up 6.6 percent at $89.30 on Monday.

Lowe’s board of directors has begun a search for his replacement, and Niblock will remain in his current role as chairman, president and CEO until it finds his successor.

“After a 25-year career at Lowe’s, including 13 years as chairman and CEO, I am confident that it is the right time to transition the company to its next generation of leadership,” Niblock said in a statement.

“Serving Lowe’s alongside our over 310,000 outstanding employees has been my great privilege and the highlight of my professional career.”

Niblock received his undergraduate degree at UNC-Charlotte and is a certified public accountant. He joined Lowe’s in 1993 and served as director of taxation and other executive roles until he became CEO in 2005. Before Lowe’s, Niblock worked with accounting firm Ernst & Young for nine years.

Activist investor D.E. Shaw & Co. built a stake in Lowe’s earlier this year, expressing its displeasure about the company’s performance.

Lowe’s serves more than 18 million customers a week in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The company was founded in 1946 and operates and service a chain of retail home improvement and appliance stores in the United States.

The company’s fiscal year 2017 sales were $69.6 billion.