James Goodnight

Last updated
James Goodnight
Dr. Jim Goodnight.jpg
Born
James Howard Goodnight

January 6, 1943 (1943-01-06) (age 82)
Salisbury, North Carolina, U.S.
Other namesJim Goodnight
Education North Carolina State University (PhD)
Occupation(s)Businessman and software developer
TitleCo-founder & CEO, SAS
Term1976–present
SpouseAnn Goodnight
Children3

James Howard Goodnight (born January 6, 1943) is an American billionaire businessman and software developer. He has been the CEO of SAS since 1976, which he co-founded that year with other faculty members of North Carolina State University. [1] As of 2025, his net worth was estimated at US$18.5 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index [2] and he is regarded as the richest person in North Carolina. [3]

Contents

Early life and career

Goodnight was born to Albert Goodnight and Dorothy Patterson in Salisbury, North Carolina, on January 6, 1943. [4] He lived in Greensboro until he was 12, when his family moved to Wilmington. As a kid he worked at his father's hardware store. [5] [6]

Goodnight's career with computers began with a Mathematics course at North Carolina State University. One summer he got a job writing software programs for the agricultural economics department. [7] Goodnight was a member of the Beta-Beta chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon at NC State, and contributed to the construction of a new fraternity house for the chapter in 2002. [8]

Goodnight received a master's degree in statistics in 1968. [5] He also worked at a company building electronic equipment for the ground stations that communicated with the Apollo space capsules. [9] [10] While working on the Apollo program, Goodnight experienced a work environment with a high turnover rate and this shaped his views on corporate culture. [10] [11] Goodnight returned to North Carolina State University after working on the Apollo project, where he earned a PhD in statistics and was a faculty member from 1972 to 1976. [7]

Career

Creation of SAS at NCSU

While at North Carolina State, Goodnight collaborated with fellow faculty member Anthony James Barr as project leaders for a research project to create a general purpose statistical analysis system (the original meaning of the name SAS) for analyzing agricultural data. [12] The project was operated by a consortium of eight land-grant universities and funded primarily by the USDA. [13] John Sall joined the project in 1973. [14]

Founding SAS Institute

In 1976, the software had 100 customers, and Goodnight made the decision to establish a private company around it. [12] Goodnight, together with Sall, Barr, and Jane Helwig, left NCSU to found SAS Institute. They were originally based out of an office across the street from the university. [15]

By 1979, SAS had outgrown its original office in Raleigh. Goodnight felt that it would be good for the company to move out of the city and into a more "serene" location, and the group eventually decided on Cary, North Carolina. [16] SAS Institute moved into a new office there in 1980. [17] [18]

Growth and expansion

As of 2025, Goodnight has remained CEO of SAS Institute for nearly 50 years. Under his leadership, the company experienced continuous growth. [19] Its revenue increased from $138,000 in its first year in business, to $420 million in 1993 and $3.2 billion in 2022. [20]

SAS is one of the largest privately held software providers in the world. [21] It develops several suites of software related to statistical analysis, machine learning, deep learning, computer vision and natural language processing, including SAS, JMP [22] and SAS Viya. [23]

The SAS campus in Cary has grown to cover 900 acres, [24] with approximately 4,000 out of the company's 10,000 employees based there. [25]

For most of SAS' history, Goodnight rejected acquisition offers and chosen not to take SAS public to protect the company's work environment. [4] Since 2021, Goodnight has been guiding the company's preparation for an initial public offering (IPO). [26] The planned IPO will allow the company to offer stock options to employees and to raise its profile. [27]

Leadership style

Goodnight created SAS' corporate culture, [28] often described by the media as "utopian." [11] [29] Throughout the company's history, Goodnight has maintained a flat and flexible organizational structure at the company. [30] [31] During the company's early years, he introduced benefits such as profit sharing, 35-hour work weeks, on-site medical care, childcare, and other services for employees which have contributed to improved productivity and employee retention. [12] [32] [33]

HSM Global described Goodnight's leadership style in a framework of three pillars: "help employees do their best work by keeping them intellectually challenged and by removing distractions; make managers responsible for sparking creativity; eliminate arbitrary distinctions between 'suits' and 'creatives'; engage customers as creative partners to help deliver superior products." [34]

Awards and recognition

Goodnight at the World Economic Forum in Cologny, Geneva Jim Goodnight.jpg
Goodnight at the World Economic Forum in Cologny, Geneva

In 1981, Goodnight was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association. [35] Goodnight has been called the "Godfather of AI" for his role in the creation of SAS. [36]

In 1997, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. [37] In 2004, he was named a Great American Business Leader by Harvard Business School. [38] [39] That same year he was named one of America's 25 Most Fascinating Entrepreneurs by Inc. Magazine. [40] He has also been a frequent speaker and participant at the World Economic Forum. [7] In March 2020, Jim Goodnight was awarded a CEO Great Place to Work For All Leadership Award by Great Place to Work. [41]

Personal life

Goodnight met his wife, Ann, while he was a senior at North Carolina State University and she was attending Meredith College. They have been married for over 50 years and have three children, [4] [42] including real estate redeveloper and historic preservationist James Goodnight. [43]

Rock collection

Goodnight has an interest in rock collecting. As a child, Goodnight would collect quartzes and arrowheads in the Greensboro area. He rediscovered his interest in geology in adulthood and began collecting rare rocks and other natural objects. In addition to minerals, he has also collected fossilized wood, dinosaur eggs and arrowheads from the Archaic period in North Carolina (dating between 8,000 BC and 1,000 BC). His collection includes hundreds of pieces, coming from over 40 countries. [44] Goodnight has described rocks and minerals as a genre of art. [45]

Parts of the collection are exhibited on the SAS campus in Cary, North Carolina. The display has been described as "a testament to his love of unique pieces of earth, from petrified dinosaur eggs, to impressive, mosaic chunks of native granite, to large, glassy meteorites." [46] Goodnight has loaned pieces from his collection to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences for the enjoyment of the public. A selection of pieces are displayed in the Betsy M. Bennett Bridge to Discovery, which links the museum to its Nature Research Center. [44]

Wealth and philanthropy

In April 2023, Goodnight's net worth was estimated at US$7.4 billion, making him the richest person in North Carolina, ahead of Epic Games' Tim Sweeney. [3] The Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimated his net worth to be US$11 billion in April 2024. [47]

Goodnight has an interest in improving the state of education, particularly elementary and secondary education. [48] He has advocated for increased funding for STEM education in the United States to prevent brain-drain and the outsourcing of research and technology jobs to other countries. [49] In 1996, Goodnight and his wife, along with his business partner, John Sall and his wife Ginger, founded an independent prep school Cary Academy. [50] He has advocated for restructuring preschool funding in North Carolina to extend access to more children in the state. [51]

The Goodnights have engaged in various philanthropic activities related to North Carolina State University. They created the Goodnight Scholarships, including the Goodnight Scholars Program and the Goodnight Transfer Scholars Program, which provides full tuition scholarships and development programs to students in STEM. [52] Their endowments have also created the Goodnight Doctoral Fellowship, 28 named faculty positions, and a deanship at North Carolina State. [53]

The Goodnights also founded the Goodnight Educational Foundation in 2005. [54] The foundation has supported the North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities' Science of Reading Initiative. [55] In 2023, the Goodnight Distinguished Professorship in Early Literacy at Western Carolina University was established with a $1.5 million endowment from the foundation. [56] Goodnight has also contributed to the William and Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation. [57]

The Goodnights have also donated to causes such as wildlife conservation and historical preservation. [58] They sponsored the Jim and Ann Goodnight Museum Park, part of the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. [59] In 2018, Goodnight and his wife were awarded by the North Carolina Museum of History for their contributions to the preservation of North Carolina history. [60] He is a patron of the Carolina Ballet. [61]

Both of the Goodnights are also involved in the local Cary, North Carolina, community. He has invested heavily in real estate in Cary, which - in addition to tax revenue generated by SAS and the attraction of thousands of employees - has contributed to the town's growth since the 1970s. He has also invested in the development of the neighboring community of Chatham Park. [62] [63] He owns Prestonwood Country Club and The Umstead Hotel and Spa situated on the edge of the SAS campus. [64] [65] [66]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Jim Goodnight, Co-Founder & CEO". www.sas.com. Retrieved 2018-12-17.
  2. ↑ "Bloomberg Billionaires Index". Bloomberg L.P. Archived from the original on 7 December 2024. Retrieved 9 February 2025.
  3. 1 2 "Jim Goodnight regains status as NC's richest person, toppling Epic Games' Tim Sweeney". WRAL-TV . 4 April 2023. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 Maney, Kevin (April 21, 2004). "SAS Workers Won When Greed Lost". USA Today. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
  5. 1 2 "Goodnight for all". The Irish Times. 16 June 2000. Retrieved 2020-11-02.
  6. ↑ "A good night for numbers". The Charlotte Observer. 27 July 2008.
  7. 1 2 3 Official biography, SAS Institute, retrieved December 13, 2012
  8. ↑ Hoyle, Amanda (25 June 2014). "TKE alumni selling fraternity house at N.C. State, listed for $2.6M". Triangle Business Journal.
  9. ↑ Raleigh News & Observer. "Ann and Jim Goodnight." December 31, 2006. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
  10. 1 2 Stallard, Michael (June 18, 2010). "Has SAS Chairman Jim Goodnight Cracked the Code of Corporate Culture?". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on May 4, 2011. Retrieved December 12, 2012.
  11. 1 2 Bankert, Ellen; Lee, Mary Dean; Lange, Candice, "SAS Institute: A case on the role of senior business leaders in driving work/life cultural change" (PDF), The Wharton Work/Life Roundtable: A Division of the Wharton Work/Life Integration Project, University of Pennsylvania, archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-06-12, retrieved 2013-01-18, SAS Institute has received considerable media attention for the "utopian" environment for which it has become known
  12. 1 2 3 Kaplan, David (January 22, 2010). "SAS: A new no. 1 best employer". Fortune. Archived from the original on November 29, 2011. Retrieved September 27, 2011.
  13. ↑ SAS Institute FDA Intellectual Partnership for Efficient Regulated Research Data Archival and Analyses (PDF), Presented at Duke University, April 12, 2000, archived from the original (PDF) on August 24, 2000, retrieved September 28, 2011
  14. ↑ Alan Agresti; Xiao-Li Meng (November 2, 2012). Strength in Numbers: The Rising of Academic Statistics Departments in the U. S.: The Rising of Academic Statistics Departments in the U.S. Springer. p. 177. ISBN   978-1-4614-3649-2.
  15. ↑ Case Research Journal. The Association. 2009. pp. 77–78.
  16. ↑ Cummings, Alex Sayf (2020-04-28). Brain Magnet: Research Triangle Park and the Idea of the Idea Economy. Columbia University Press. ISBN   978-0-231-54574-7.
  17. ↑ "SAS corporate timeline". WRAL. March 3, 2011. Retrieved October 17, 2011.
  18. ↑ Nowell, Paul (June 28, 1992). "Cary software firm handles growth without losing human touch". Associated Press. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  19. ↑ Buchanan, Leigh (September 2011). "How SAS Continues to Grow". Inc. Magazine. Retrieved December 17, 2012.
  20. ↑ Corporate Statistics, SAS Institute, retrieved August 10, 2011
  21. ↑ Gordon, Brian (September 28, 2023). "SAS eliminates more positions this week as part of its 2023 staff reduction plan". The News & Observer.
  22. ↑ Cox, Ian; Gaudard, Marie A.; Ramsey, Philip J.; Stephens, Mia L.; Wright, Leo (21 December 2009). Visual Six Sigma: Making Data Analysis Lean. John Wiley & Sons. p. 23. ISBN   978-0-470-50691-2 . Retrieved 16 November 2012.
  23. ↑ "SAS goes cloud but will customers follow?". ZDNET. Retrieved 2025-08-12.
  24. ↑ Cain, Áine. "This $3.2 billion tech company you've never heard of has insane perks including massage therapists, a pool, and woodside yoga". Business Insider. Retrieved 2025-08-12.
  25. ↑ Eanes, Zachery (2025-05-01). "SAS has elevated a veteran of the company to be its new head of IPO readiness". Axios. Retrieved 2025-08-12.
  26. ↑ Hu, Krystal; Mehta, Chavi (2021-07-29). "Analytics behemoth SAS says aiming to go public by 2024". Reuters. Retrieved 2025-08-12.
  27. ↑ Gordon, Brian (May 19, 2025). "What Goodnight's decision to keep SAS private has meant for its workers and Cary". News & Observer.
  28. ↑ Hardy, Quentin (June 9, 2011). "SAS-We Spurned IBM, Now to Win". Forbes. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
  29. ↑ Shivapriya, N (September 25, 2008). "SAS Steams Along as Unlisted Firms Amid US Financial Chaos". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on May 27, 2012. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
  30. ↑ Joel, Kurtzman. "An Interview with Jeffrey Pfeffer". Strategy+Business.
  31. ↑ Fishman, Charles (December 31, 1998). "Sanity Inc". Fast Company. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007.
  32. ↑ Avery, Gayle (2005). Leadership for Sustainable Futures: Achieving Success in a Competitive World. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 166–168. ISBN   978-1-84542-549-4.
  33. ↑ Rosen, Lori (2004-01-01). HR Networking: Work-life Benefits. Wolters Kluwer. pp. 25–26. ISBN   978-0-8080-1139-2.
  34. ↑ Building a Winning Corporate Culture – Jim Goodnight and SAS, HSM Global
  35. ↑ View/Search Fellows of the ASA Archived 2016-06-16 at the Wayback Machine , accessed 2016-10-15.
  36. ↑ Ioannou, Lori (2019-11-04). "Jim Goodnight, the 'Godfather of A.I.,' predicts the future fate of the US workforce". CNBC. Retrieved 2024-04-20.
  37. ↑ "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
  38. ↑ "Jim Goodnight". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 2024-04-20.
  39. ↑ "Great American Business Leaders of the 20th Century: James H. Goodnight". Harvard Business School . Retrieved February 3, 2021.
  40. ↑ Fenn, Donna. "James Goodnight, SAS". Inc. Magazine. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
  41. ↑ SAS. "SAS' Jim Goodnight honored with CEO Great Place to Work® For All Leadership Award". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 2020-03-05.
  42. ↑ "Ann Goodnight collects art and North Carolina benefits | Walter Magazine". 31 March 2014. Retrieved 2018-12-17.
  43. ↑ Smith, Aaron Lake (2014-01-22). "James Goodnight's plan to revive Raleigh history". INDY Week. Retrieved 2025-08-12.
  44. 1 2 zonker (2014-10-31). "Natural treasures: The extraordinary collection of Dr. Jim Goodnight". WALTER Magazine. Retrieved 2024-04-20.
  45. ↑ "Rock Collection Lines the Walls Of Software Executive's Office". Wall Street Journal. 2003-11-05. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved 2024-04-20.
  46. ↑ Hemsoth, Nicole (2012-07-03). "Chips, Stats & Stones: A Morning with SAS CEO Dr. Jim Goodnight". Datanami. Retrieved 2024-04-20.
  47. ↑ "Bloomberg Billionaires Index". Bloomberg.com. 2023-10-30. Retrieved 2024-04-20.
  48. ↑ Judson, Andie (27 February 2017). "Forbes: Richest person in North Carolina". WCNC. Retrieved 2020-11-02.
  49. ↑ "SAS Institute CEO Jim Goodnight on Building Strong Companies -- and a More Competitive U.S. Workforce". Knowledge at Wharton. Retrieved 2024-04-20.
  50. ↑ SAS Institute CEO Jim Goodnight on Building Strong Companies – and a More Competitive U.S. Workforce, January 5, 2011, retrieved December 12, 2012
  51. ↑ "SAS CEO Jim Goodnight: Change NC's pre-K funding to reach more children". NC Chamber. 2019-08-14.
  52. ↑ "Goodnight Scholarships". Goodnight Scholarships. Retrieved 2024-04-20.
  53. ↑ "Goodnight Doctoral Fellowship". The Graduate School. Retrieved 2024-04-20.
  54. ↑ "Goodnight Educational Foundation - Company Profile and News". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2024-04-20.
  55. ↑ "Goodnight Foundation Supports NCICU's Science of Reading Initiative – NCICU". 2021-12-03. Retrieved 2024-04-20.
  56. ↑ Bill Studenc (2023-03-14). "New professorship in early literacy established with $1.5M from Goodnight Foundation". Western Carolina University. Retrieved 2024-04-20.
  57. ↑ "James Goodnight". Inside Philanthropy. 2021-08-18. Retrieved 2024-04-20.
  58. ↑ "SAS, Goodnight keep demonstrating the power to do good | WRAL TechWire". wraltechwire.com. 2019-05-02. Retrieved 2024-04-20.
  59. ↑ Kowalksi, Emily (2016-11-04). "The Ann and Jim Goodnight Museum Park". North Carolina Museum of Art. Retrieved 2024-04-20.
  60. ↑ Intern, Editorial (2019-01-08). "N.C. Museum of History Hosts Foundation Philanthropy Awards". WALTER Magazine. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  61. ↑ "James Goodnight". Inside Philanthropy. 2021-08-18. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  62. ↑ "SAS' NEXT MOVE". www.bizjournals.com.
  63. ↑ Barkin, Dan (2023-09-11). "Cary's growth not just due to natural advantages". Business North Carolina. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  64. ↑ "Citizen Goodnight". Raleigh News and Observer. July 21, 1996. Archived from the original on April 5, 2012. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
  65. ↑ "The Umstead Hotel, Umstead Spa, And Herons Offer Five Star Luxury In The Triangle". The Raleigh Telegram. Archived from the original on 23 July 2013. Retrieved 7 February 2013.
  66. ↑ "Ann Goodnight planning upscale restaurant near hotel". Triangle Business Journal. Retrieved 7 February 2013.

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