John Sall is the co-founder and Executive Vice President of the
SAS InstituteSAS Institute Inc. , headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, USA, has been a major producer of software since it was founded in 1976 by Anthony Barr, James Goodnight, John Sall and Jane Helwig...
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Biography
John Sall was born in
RockfordRockford is a mid-sized city located on both banks of the Rock River in far northern Illinois. Often referred to as "The Forest City", Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County, Illinois, USA. As reported in the 2010 U.S. census, the city was home to 152,871 people, the third most populated...
,
IllinoisIllinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
in 1948. He received a Bachelor of Arts in history from
Beloit CollegeBeloit College is a liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin, USA. It is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, and has an enrollment of roughly 1,300 undergraduate students. Beloit is the oldest continuously operated college in Wisconsin, and has the oldest building of any college...
and a master's degree in economics from
Northern Illinois UniversityNorthern Illinois University is a state university and research institution located in DeKalb, Illinois, with satellite centers in Hoffman Estates, Naperville, Rockford, and Oregon. It was originally founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895 by Illinois Governor John P...
.
He met business partner
James GoodnightJames "Jim" Goodnight is the CEO of SAS Instituteand is generally recognized as the wealthiest man in the state of North Carolina and one of the wealthiest in the world.-Biography:...
as a graduate student at
North Carolina State UniversityNorth Carolina State University at Raleigh is a public, coeducational, extensive research university located in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Commonly known as NC State, the university is part of the University of North Carolina system and is a land, sea, and space grant institution...
. In 1976, he joined
Anthony James BarrAnthony James Barr, aka Tony Barr or Jim Barr is an American "programming language" designer, software engineer, and inventor...
, Goodnight, and Jane Helwig in founding SAS Institute Inc., now believed to be the largest privately held software maker in the world. He currently owns about 1/3 of the company, while
James GoodnightJames "Jim" Goodnight is the CEO of SAS Instituteand is generally recognized as the wealthiest man in the state of North Carolina and one of the wealthiest in the world.-Biography:...
owns the other 2/3. He helped create the
JMPJMP is a computer program that was first developed by John Sall and others to perform simple and complex statistical analyses.It dynamically links statistics with graphics to interactively explore, understand, and visualize data...
.
He received an honorary doctorate from NC State in 2003 and is a member of the NC State University Board of Trustees. He is an elected Fellow of the
American Statistical AssociationThe American Statistical Association , is the main professional US organization for statisticians and related professions. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts on November 27, 1839, and is the second oldest, continuously operating professional society in the United States...
. He sits on the Board of Directors of
The Nature ConservancyThe Nature Conservancy is a US charitable environmental organization that works to preserve the plants, animals, and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive....
. In 1994, he served as Chairman of the Interface Foundation of North America. With his wife, he co-founded the
Cary AcademyCary Academy is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian, college-preparatory secondary school in Cary, North Carolina established in 1996. The school places an emphasis on the use of technology in the classroom, with tablet computers issued to all students...
, an independent college preparatory day school for students in grades 6 through 12.
As of September 2011, he is worth US$ 4.4 billion, and he is the 76th richest person in the United States. He lives in
CaryCary is a large town and suburb of Raleigh, North Carolina in Wake and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located almost entirely in Wake County, it is the second largest municipality in that county and the third largest municipality in The Triangle after Raleigh and Durham...
,
North CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
. He is married and has four children.