James Howard Goodnight 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 April 2023, his net worth was estimated at US$7.4 billion, making him the richest person in North Carolina.

SAS Institute is an American multinational developer of analytics and artificial intelligence software based in Cary, North Carolina. SAS develops and markets a suite of analytics software, which helps access, manage, analyze and report on data to aid in decision-making. The company's software is used by most of the Fortune 500.