Jim Goodnight and John Sall, co-founders of the Cary software firm SAS, were among three North Carolinians on Forbes magazine's annual list of the world's billionaires.
Forbes listed Goodnight’s net worth at $7.3 billion, putting him 125th on the list, and Sall’s at $3.7 billion, ranking him 296th.
The third North Carolinian on the list was Charlotte businessman C.D. "Dick" Spangler. Spangler ranked 804th on the list, with a fortune estimated at $1.6 billion, according to the magazine.
SAS has made the top spot in Fortune magazine's list of Best Places to Work for the second year in a row.
The Cary software company has made the list for 14 years and earned the top spot with its legendary perks such as on-site healthcare and summer camp for kids.
Earlier this week, the private company projected that revenue would rise by 12 percent this year. SAS does not disclose profits. Projected growth has the company planning to build on its campus in about a year.
SAS employs 12,370 workers worldwide; 4,818 in Cary.
Other companies with a local presence that made the Fortune list include Cisco and Whole Foods. To see the complete list, go here.
The push by local and state governments to save money during the downturn has been a boon for Cary-based SAS.
The software company announced this morning that it had exceeded the 6 percent job growth it projected at the beginning of the year.
"As computers process more information at greater speeds, people are realizing the potential hidden in their data," SAS CEO Jim Goodnight said in a statement. "SAS is being asked to answer questions and solve problems that couldn't be answered or solved before."
To meet that demand, SAS late last year announced that it was creating an Analytics Lab for State and Local Government where employees would develop products as well as work with government agencies on projects tailored to their needs.
Executives said at the time that the lab would hire 100 employees over the next two years to handle the business. In eight months, it has hired 50, putting the company ahead of its intended hiring rate, according to a company statement.
So far, SAS has added 447 employees in the United States this year. It now employs 12,370 worldwide.
GlaxoSmithKline’s North Carolina employees will soon have the option to participate in a pilot health care program designed to reduce costs and improve results through more coordinated care.
The public-private partnership, called First in Health, will allow GSK’s 10,000 employees and dependents to access a system that has been used by the state to serve Medicaid recipients for the past decade.
That system uses a “medical home” approach that relies on a patient’s primary care physician to coordinate care among various other health providers.
The system, which was created by Community Care of North Carolina, has drawn national attention for its ability to save nearly $1.5 billion in health care costs over the last three years.
Analytic software developer SAS is well known for its employee friendly atmosphere at its sprawling 140 acre campus that includes a child care facility, fitness center and free M&Ms -supposedly 22 tons of them per year.
It seems being nice to workers actually pays.
In an interview with Inc. magazine, Jim Goodnight, co-founder and CEO of the Cary company, shares it has been estimated that SAS saves $60 to $80 million a year through its retention efforts which stem employee turnover costs.
Forbes.com highlighted the segment of the interview also noting the Triangle company has topped Fortune's list of best companies to work at for the last two years.
Software developer SAS continues expanding its solar energy production at its Cary campus, where the company already has the largest solar complex in the Triangle.
The company this week notified the N.C. Utilities Commission it plans to add another 168.48 kilowatts of solar power on a building rooftop. The $822,000 project is expected to be selling electricity to Progress Energy in August and will bring SAS's solar capacity to 2.45 megawatts.
SAS has two large ground-level solar farms located on campus that are tended by sheep trucked in to graze on the grass. The company also has a rooftop solar array and three solar thermal projects that produce heated water.
The company has been able to build out its solar complex to over 11,000 panels in the past several years thanks to generous state and federal tax credits as well as incentives offered by Progress Energy that together cover more than two-thirds of the price of the projects.
Travel and Leisure magazine has ranked Cary's Umstead Hotel and Spa as the 10th best large-city hotel in the U.S. and Canada.
The rankings are based on votes submitted by the magazine's readers for its 16th annual World's Best Awards.
The Umstead is the only North Carolina hotel in the top 50. It was ranked 34th last year.
Umstead is the brainchild of philanthropist and businesswoman Ann Goodnight, SAS founder Jim Goodnight's wife.
It has 150 rooms and suites on a 12-acre site.
For a list of Travel and Leisure's world hotel rankings go here.
The legislature's new Republican majority has made its first move to put an imprint on the UNC system. On Thursday, the Senate appointed eight new members to the UNC system's Board of Governors.
The eight new appointees don't signal a dramatic shift, in that four are either re-appointed current or former board members. But taken collectively, they are seven white men and one white woman; meanwhile, the board stands to lose four African-Americans and at least five women once all appointments are made.
The House appoints eight additional new members next week.
Here's today's story.
Reappointed to the UNC Board of Governors were long-time education advocate Ann Goodnight, wife of SAS Institute CEO Jim Goodnight, and Peter Hans, a senior policy adviser with the Nelson Mullins law firm in Raleigh.
Former board members H. Frank Grainger of Cary and John Fennebresque of Charlotte also were appointed. Grainger is part-owner of Fair Products Inc. and Tritest Environmental Lab, and Fennebresque is an attorney.
The four newcomers were Fred Eshelman of Wilmington, executive chairman and founder of Pharmaceutical Product Development Corp.; W. Louis Bissette Jr., an attorney from Asheville; Thomas Harrelson of Southport, vice president of AECOM, a former state legislator and DOT secretary appointed by Republican Gov. Jim Martin; and Phillip Walker, senior vice president with BB&T in Hickory.
SAS boss Jim Goodnight's billions are enough to put him at No. 141 of Forbes magazine's list of the world's richest people.
With an estimated net worth of $6.9 billion, the SAS CEO and co-founder remains the richest North Carolinian, and one of only three Tar Heels on the Forbes list.
His SAS colleague John Sall ranks at No. 323 with $3.4 billion.
Last fall, on Forbes list of the richest Americans, those estimates put Goodnight at No. 35, with Sall at No. 91.
Goodnight and Sall met at N.C. State and started SAS in 1976. The company sells software that allows banks, retailers, government agencies and other customers analyze vast amounts of data to spot trends and hone strategy.
Raleigh software company DataFlux said today that it has acquired Baseline Consulting, a Los Angeles-based firm that helps businesses utilize their data.
DataFlux is a subsidiary of Cary-based SAS, which bought the company in 2000. It provides technologies that help companies manage their data.
Terms of the acquisition weren't disclosed.
But there were, apparently, no losers in the deal.
"Calling this a 'win-win' would be a bit trite," said Jill Dyché, a Baseline partner and co-founder of the firm, in a release.
"I'd call it a 'win-win-win-win' – since not only Baseline and DataFlux benefit from the acquisition, but so do two sets of forward-thinking customers. It really lets us offer data management services and solutions across the delivery spectrum."
For more on the deal go here.
