James Goodnight

Cary, North Carolina, from 1976. Goodnight and his co-founders built SAS beside North Carolina State University, whose statisticians and agricultural researchers were its first users and recruits. Low costs, a campus-style headquarters and benefits such as on-site childcare kept staff turnover unusually low, which mattered more than proximity to investors because SAS never took outside money. It helped make the Research Triangle a technology region.