CARY – Jim Goodnight insists that he’s not retiring as CEO of SAS, the software giant he has led the way in creating since his days at NCSU as a professor in 1976.
“I can’t retire yet,” he told Bloomberg News with his typical wit. “My golf game is terrible.”
SAS logo (WRAL file photo)
Goodnight, one of the world’s richest people with a fortune totaling several billion dollars, is 76.
Once asked by WRAL News if he was retiring, Goodnight snapped: “No … are you?”
“There are no retirement plans for Dr. Goodnight,” a spokesperson for SAS tells WRAL TechWire. “He remains a very active CEO.”
Retirement and succession plans at SAS have always been sensitive subjects for Goodnight, who remains a very involved programmer and chief executive. In fact, he appeared on stage Sunday at a global conference put on by SAS in Dallas and announced a new partnership with Boys and Girls Club of America to provide instruction in coding.
But in the Bloomberg interview, Goodnight pointed as Oliver Schabenberger, the privately held company’s chief operating and chief technology officer, as his successor.
“The evolution of Oliver Schabenberger’s role has been part of SAS’ longer term strategy for the company,” the SAS spokesperson told TechWire.
Goodnight also is routinely asked if he would sell SAS, which has been profitable since launch and has increased revenues each year, topping $3.2 billion again in 2018.
Asked about selling, Goodnight said he might “if the right offer came along.” He also pointed out that “we are not considering a sale of the company for the foreseeable future.”
