Triangle’s richest get a lot richer: Goodnight, Sall soar on Forbes billionaires list

SAS software co-founders Jim Goodnight and John Sall have had a good 12 months, adding tens of millions of dollars to their wealth, according to the new annual Forbes list of billionaires.

The list, released Monday, ranks the richest people on Earth, and it was a banner year for them, according to Forbes author Kerry Dolan. The number of people in the world with 10-figure fortunes jumped 13 percent to 2,043.

Four North Carolinians made the list, including Cary’s Goodnight and Sall. Both men jumped in the rankings.

Goodnight, the founder of SAS and the richest man in the state, jumped seven spots from last year to 137th-richest in the world, Forbes said. The 48th-richest man in the United States still owns two-thirds of the company, and he increased his fortune from 2016 by about 17.5 percent to $9.4 billion.

SAS software, which was originally developed to analyze agricultural data, is now used by 75,000 companies around the world. The company’s revenue was $3.2 billion in 2016, Forbes said.

Sall, No. 367 in the world and 130th in the United States, is estimated to be worth $4.5 billion, the business publication said. The SAS co-founder, who moved up 32 spots, saw his worth increase from $3.9 billion in last year’s list, Forbes said.

Two other North Carolinians, Charlotte businessman C.D. “Dick” Spangler and Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan, also made the list.

Spangler, worth $3.7 billion on the March 2017 list, is head of a privately held business, National Gypsum, a producer of gypsum board, which is commonly called drywall. Spangler’s family is also a major shareholder in Charlotte-based Bank of America.

Jordan, the least wealthy of the state’s billionaires, broke the $1 billion mark on the 2015 Forbes list and is now listed at $1.3 billion — No. 1,567.

This story was originally published March 21, 2017 at 10:47 AM with the headline "Triangle’s richest get a lot richer: Goodnight, Sall soar on Forbes billionaires list."