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{{Infobox person
| name = James Goodnight
| image = Drgoodnight.jpg
| caption =
| birth_name = James Howard Goodnight
| birth_date = {{Birth-date and age|January 6, 1943}}
| birth_place = [[Salisbury, NC]], US
| nationality = American
| other_names = James H. Goodnight, Jim Goodnight
| education = [[North Carolina State University]]
| occupation = Businessman and software developer
| title = CEO, [[SAS Institute]]
| term = 1976-
|net_worth = US$8.9 [[1000000000 (number)|billion]] (October 2018)<ref name="Forbes profile">{{cite news|url=https://www.forbes.com/profile/james-goodnight/|title=Forbes profile: James Goodnight|publisher=Forbes|accessdate=8 October 2018}}</ref>
| spouse = Ann Goodnight
| children = 3
}}

'''James Howard Goodnight''' (born January 6, 1943) is an American [[billionaire]] businessman and software developer. He and several other faculty members of [[North Carolina State University]] left in 1976 to co-found [[SAS Institute]], and he has been the CEO since then.

==Early life and career==
Goodnight was born to Albert Goodnight and Dorothy Patterson in [[Salisbury, North Carolina]], on January 6, 1943.<ref name="eleven">{{cite news|first=Kevin|last=Maney|newspaper=USA Today|url=https://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2004-04-21-sas-culture_x.htm|title=SAS Workers Won When Greed Lost|date=April 21, 2004|accessdate=December 6, 2011}}</ref> He lived in [[Greensboro, North Carolina|Greensboro]], until he was 12, when his family moved to [[Wilmington, North Carolina|Wilmington]]. In his youth, he often worked at his father's hardware store.<ref name="cbr">{{cite news|newspaper=Computer Business Review|title=SAS: It's a family affair|url=|first=Jason|last=Stamper|date=November 24, 2010}}</ref> Mathematics and chemistry were Goodnight's strongest subjects in school, thanks in part, he says, to a "wonderful chemistry teacher" at [[New Hanover High School]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.alumniblog.ncsu.edu/2009/08/03/jim_goodnigh/ |work=Red & White for Life|first=Cherry|last=Crayton|title=Red & White for Life What does Roman Gabriel have to do with SAS?|publisher=North Carolina State University}}</ref>

Goodnight's career with computers began when he took a computer course his sophomore year at North Carolina State University. At the time, he said, "a light went on, and I fell in love with making machines do things for other people." The following summer he got a job writing software programs for the agricultural economics department.<ref name="one">{{citation|publisher=SAS Institute|url=http://www.sas.com/presscenter/bios/jgoodnight.html|title=Official biography|accessdate=December 13, 2012}}</ref> Goodnight is a member of the Beta-Beta chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon at NC State and with contributions from other alumni, Goodnight was responsible for the construction of a new fraternity house for the chapter in 2002.<ref name="cbr"/>

Goodnight received a master's degree in statistics in 1968.<ref name="cbr"/> While working on his master's, his curiosity was piqued over the prospect of a man being sent to the moon. His programming skills helped him land a position at a company building electronic equipment for the ground stations that communicated with the [[Apollo]] space capsules.<ref name="three">Raleigh News & Observer. "[http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/527061.html Ann and Jim Goodnight]." December 31, 2006. Retrieved December 6, 2011.</ref><ref name="twelve">{{cite news|first=Michael|last=Stallard|newspaper=The Economic Times|url=http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2010-06-18/news/27624358_1_sas-employee-work-culture|title=Has SAS Chairman Jim Goodnight Cracked the Code of Corporate Culture?|date=June 18, 2010|accessdate=December 12, 2012}}</ref> While working on the Apollo program, Goodnight experienced a work environment that had an annual turnover rate of approximately 50 percent. This shaped his views on corporate culture and his future role as an employer.<ref name="twelve"/><ref name="fourteen"/> Goodnight returned to [[North Carolina State University]] after working on the Apollo project. He earned a PhD in statistics with a thesis titled ''Quadratic unbiased estimation of variance components in linear models with an emphasis on the one-way classification'' under the supervision of Robert James Monroe, and became a faculty member from 1972 to 1976.<ref name="one"/>

==Career==
{{main|SAS Institute}}
Goodnight joined another faculty at North Carolina State in a research project to create a general purpose statistical analysis system ([[SAS (software)|SAS]]) for analyzing agricultural data.<ref name="seventyeight">{{cite news|first=David |last=Kaplan |newspaper=Fortune |url=http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/21/technology/sas_best_companies.fortune/ |title=SAS: A new no. 1 best employer |date=January 22, 2010 |accessdate=September 27, 2011 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111129010236/http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/21/technology/sas_best_companies.fortune/ |archivedate=November 29, 2011 |df= }}</ref> The project was operated by a consortium of eight land-grant universities and funded primarily by the [[USDA]]. Goodnight along with another faculty member [[Anthony James Barr]] became project leaders for the development of the early version of SAS.<ref name="fda">{{citation|publisher=Presented at Duke University|url=http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/dockets/00n0001/ts00016.pdf|title=SAS Institute FDA Intellectual Partnership for Efficient Regulated Research Data Archival and Analyses|date=April 12, 2000|accessdate=September 28, 2011}}</ref> When the software had 100 customers in 1976, Goodnight and three others from the University left the college to form [[SAS Institute]]<ref name="nineteen">{{cite news|first=Steve|last=Lohr|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/business/22sas.html?pagewanted=all|title=At a Software Powerhouse, the Good Life Is Under Siege|date=November 21, 2009|accessdate=December 6, 2011}}</ref><ref name="timeline">{{citation|publisher=WRAL|url=http://www.wral.com/business/story/9211429/|title=SAS corporate timeline|date=March 3, 2011|accessdate=October 17, 2011}}</ref> in an office across the street.<ref name="one"/>

Goodnight remained CEO of SAS Institute for more than 35 years as the company grew from $138,000 its first year in business, to $420 million in 1993 and $2.43 billion by 2010.<ref name="fiftyseven">{{citation|url=http://www.sas.com/company/about/statistics.html|title=Corporate Statistics|publisher=SAS Institute|accessdate=August 10, 2011}}</ref> Under his leadership, the company grew each year.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.inc.com/magazine/201109/inc-500-james-goodnight-sas.html|newspaper=Inc. Magazine|first=Leigh|last=Buchanan|title=How SAS Continues to Grow|date=September 2011|accessdate=December 17, 2012}}</ref> Goodnight became known for creating and defending SAS' corporate culture,<ref name="fifteen">{{cite news|first=Quentin|last=Hardy|newspaper=Forbes|url=https://blogs.forbes.com/quentinhardy/2011/06/09/sas-ibms-bad-culture-how-well-win/|title=SAS-We Spurned IBM, Now to Win|date=June 9, 2011|accessdate=December 6, 2011}}</ref> often described by the media as "utopian."<ref name="fourteen">{{citation|quote=SAS Institute has received considerable media attention for the "utopian" environment for which it has become known|first=Ellen|last=Bankert|first2=Mary Dean |last2=Lee |first3=Candice |last3=Lange|work=The Wharton Work/Life Roundtable: A Division of the Wharton Work/Life Integration Project|publisher=University of Pennsylvania|url=http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/pdfs/SASwharton.pdf|title=SAS Institute: A case on the role of senior business leaders in driving work/life cultural change}}</ref><ref name="sixteen">{{cite news|first=N|last=Shivapriya|newspaper=The Economic Times|url=http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2008-09-25/news/28664141_1_sas-work-culture-stock-options|title=SAS Steams Along as Unlisted Firms Amid US Financial Chaos|date=September 25, 2008|accessdate=December 6, 2011}}</ref> He rejected acquisition offers and chose against going public to protect the company's work environment.<ref name="eleven"/> Goodnight has maintained a flat organizational structure<ref name=fastc>{{cite web|url=http://www.fastcompany.com/online/21/sanity.html |title=Sanity Inc |work=Fast Company |date=December 31, 1998 |last=Fishman |first=Charles |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930183608/http://www.fastcompany.com/online/21/sanity.html |archivedate=September 30, 2007 |df= }}</ref> with about 27 people who report directly to him and three organizational layers.<ref name="StratBus">{{cite web|last=Joel|first=Kurtzman|title=An Interview with Jeffrey Pfeffer|url=http://www.strategy-business.com/article/19215?gko=3ee5a|publisher=Strategy+Business}}</ref>
[[File:Jim Goodnight.jpg|thumb|Goodnight at the [[World Economic Forum]] in Cologny, Geneva.]]
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."<ref name="thirteen">{{citation|publisher=HSM Global|title=Building a Winning Corporate Culture – Jim Goodnight and SAS}}</ref>

In 1981 Goodnight was elected as a [[Fellow of the American Statistical Association]].<ref>[http://www.amstat.org/awards/fellowslist.cfm View/Search Fellows of the ASA], accessed 2016-10-15.</ref>
In 2004, he was named a Great American Business Leader by [[Harvard]];<ref name="cbr"/> that same year he was named one of America's 25 Most Fascinating Entrepreneurs by [[Inc. Magazine]].<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Inc. Magazine|title=James Goodnight, SAS|url=http://www.inc.com/magazine/20040401/25goodnight.html|first=Donna|last=Fenn|accessdate=December 13, 2012}}</ref> He has also been a frequent speaker and participant at the [[World Economic Forum]].<ref name="one"/>

==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 three children.<ref name="eleven"/> Goodnight was the world's 172nd and America's 55th richest individual, with a net worth of approximately $9 billion, as of October 2018.<ref name="Forbes profile"/>

Goodnight has an interest in improving the state of education, particularly elementary and secondary education.<ref name="cbr"/> In 1996, Goodnight and his wife, along with his business partner, [[John Sall]] and his wife Ginger, founded an independent prep school [[Cary Academy]].<ref name="eighteen">{{citation|publisher=Knowledge@Wharton|url=http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2660|title=SAS Institute CEO Jim Goodnight on Building Strong Companies – and a More Competitive U.S. Workforce|date=January 5, 2011|accessdate=December 12, 2012}}</ref> Both of the Goodnights are also involved in the local [[Cary, NC]], community. He owns [[Prestonwood Country Club]] and The Umstead Hotel and Spa situated on the edge of the SAS campus.<ref name="twentyone">{{cite news|newspaper=Raleigh News and Observer|url=http://www.biostat.wustl.edu/~phil/stuff/bigjim.html|title=Citizen Goodnight|date=July 21, 1996|accessdate=December 6, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The Umstead Hotel, Umstead Spa, And Herons Offer Five Star Luxury In The Triangle|url=http://raleightelegram.com/201205291814|publisher=The Raleigh Telegram|accessdate=7 February 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Ann Goodnight planning upscale restaurant near hotel|url=http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2005/02/14/story4.html?page=all|publisher=Triangle Business Journal|accessdate=7 February 2013}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of Americans by net worth]]
* [[List of Tau Kappa Epsilon brothers]]
* [[Prestonwood Country Club]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
*{{citation|url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/I-0073/menu.html|title=Oral History Interview with Jim Goodnight|publisher=Oral Histories of the American South}}
*{{cite news|first=Rich|last=Karklgaard|newspaper=Forbes|url=https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0822/opinions-rich-karlgaard-innovation-rules-jim-goodnight.html|title=Jim Goodnight: King of Analytics}}

==External links==
{{commons category|James Goodnight}}
* [http://www.sas.com/company/about/bios/jgoodnight.html Goodnight's official Bio]

{{Current U.S. Richest People}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goodnight, James}}
[[Category:1943 births]]
[[Category:American billionaires]]
[[Category:American technology chief executives]]
[[Category:American humanitarians]]
[[Category:American statisticians]]
[[Category:Businesspeople in software]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from North Carolina]]
[[Category:North Carolina State University alumni]]
[[Category:People from Cary, North Carolina]]
[[Category:People from Salisbury, North Carolina]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Statistical Association]]
[[Category:Activists from North Carolina]]

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