InformationWeek

Jim Goodnight
CEO, SAS Institute

As CEO and founder of SAS Institute, Jim Goodnight sees too many instances of companies maintaining "silos" of data that aren't being shared or linked to produce better business outcomes. That's also a big problem that runs throughout the federal government, he says, and an ideal CTO would take on a "maverick" role in working to overcome that problem.

Goodnight hopes for a CTO who can execute on President Obama's plans for a digitized health care system that also will break down those silos of data on health information. For example, he'd like to see a database that could mine data and let health administrators recognize patterns. For example, they could detect outbreaks of disease in specific areas of the country and make some predictions on where the disease might appear next, or draw a link between a specific drug and unknown side effects based on information in the health records of people taking that drug. He also believes that technology offers much more in terms of protecting data privacy than allowing it to exist in paper documents.

Goodnight, a huge proponent of education reform (12 years ago, he founded a college prep school with a focus on technology), wants to see a CTO who supports improving the availability of technology to public school students. "Let's improve the technology in schools rather than giving money to banks to lose," he says.

He'd also like to see a CTO who champions the development of a system that could model and make predictions about financial markets, and model regulatory decisions many years out, so the country stands a better chance at avoiding such things as the mortgage crisis that's at the core of the current economy.

Finally, why stop with a CTO? Goodnight envisions a secretary of technology -- a Cabinet position with the power and authority to ensure the country's leadership position in technology.