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James Goodnight
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. As of 2025, his net worth was estimated at US$18.5 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index and he is regarded as the richest person in North Carolina.
Goodnight was born to Albert Goodnight and Dorothy Patterson in Salisbury, North Carolina, on January 6, 1943. 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.
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. 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.
Goodnight received a master's degree in statistics in 1968. He also worked at a company building electronic equipment for the ground stations that communicated with the Apollo space capsules. While working on the Apollo program, Goodnight experienced a work environment with a high turnover rate and this shaped his views on corporate culture. 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.
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. The project was operated by a consortium of eight land-grant universities and funded primarily by the USDA. John Sall joined the project in 1973.
In 1976, the software had 100 customers, and Goodnight made the decision to establish a private company around it. 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.
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. SAS Institute moved into a new office there in 1980.
As of 2025, Goodnight has remained CEO of SAS Institute for nearly 50 years. Under his leadership, the company experienced continuous growth. Its revenue increased from $138,000 in its first year in business, to $420 million in 1993 and $3.2 billion in 2022.
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James Goodnight
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. As of 2025, his net worth was estimated at US$18.5 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index and he is regarded as the richest person in North Carolina.
Goodnight was born to Albert Goodnight and Dorothy Patterson in Salisbury, North Carolina, on January 6, 1943. 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.
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. 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.
Goodnight received a master's degree in statistics in 1968. He also worked at a company building electronic equipment for the ground stations that communicated with the Apollo space capsules. While working on the Apollo program, Goodnight experienced a work environment with a high turnover rate and this shaped his views on corporate culture. 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.
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. The project was operated by a consortium of eight land-grant universities and funded primarily by the USDA. John Sall joined the project in 1973.
In 1976, the software had 100 customers, and Goodnight made the decision to establish a private company around it. 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.
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. SAS Institute moved into a new office there in 1980.
As of 2025, Goodnight has remained CEO of SAS Institute for nearly 50 years. Under his leadership, the company experienced continuous growth. Its revenue increased from $138,000 in its first year in business, to $420 million in 1993 and $3.2 billion in 2022.