SAS to appoint Chief Operating Officer

SAS CTO Oliver Schabenberger will assume expanded role, adding revenue-generating and support operations

Jim Goodnight, CEO and co-founder of analytics software leader SAS, today announced plans to appoint SAS Chief Technology Officer Oliver Schabenberger to the role of Chief Operating Officer. Schabenberger will retain his role as CTO and take on additional responsibilities for sales, marketing and customer support services.

Schabenberger will be responsible for executing the strategic direction and business priorities of SAS. With the exponential growth of data comes more opportunity for SAS to expand into new markets. Goodnight said, “We need strong alignment between product and revenue generating operations to carry out our ambitious plans for growth and strategic investments. Oliver has proven to be an exceptional and transformative leader who lives the company values and exemplifies our culture of innovation – qualities that make him the ideal person for this position.”

Schabenberger, a self-described lifelong learner who holds a PhD from Virginia Tech and is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, joined the R&D division of SAS in 2002. He and his team realized Goodnight’s vision of a high-performance big data analytics architecture that helps customers solve problems much faster than through traditional approaches. Schabenberger advanced to the role of Chief Technology Officer in 2016, leading SAS’ R&D.

“I’m excited about this opportunity to work with Dr. Goodnight on key functions that will support our continued growth,” Schabenberger said. “The Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and machine learning are just some examples of emerging technologies that depend on and apply analytics. We see incredible opportunity for SAS in these areas and beyond as we strive to improve lives through analytics in a connected world.”

Schabenberger will assume the role of COO/CTO Jan. 1, 2018.