We are excited to announce the winners of the 2024 Customer Recognition Awards. We want to give a big “thank you” and round of applause to all our SAS customers around the globe who help us change the world through analytics. Below we recognize the winners in each category for their stand-out contributions over the past year.
Check out the Winners e-book
Awards from customer-submitted entries
Community Uplift Award
Awarded to a SAS customer who made an impact in their community at large using SAS products.
1st Place Winner: CPESN, United States.
2nd Place Winner: Istanbul Airport, Turkey.
3rd Place Winner: Johns Hopkins, United States.
Curious Thinker
Awarded to a SAS customer who embodies curiosity, one of SAS’ guiding principles.
1st Place Winner: Pegasus Airlines, Turkey
2nd Place Winner: QNB Finansbank, Turkey.
3rd Place Winner: EY, Germany.
Innovative Problem Solver
Awarded to a SAS customer who uses SAS in innovative ways to solve a business problem.
1st Place Winner: Shionogi, Japan.
2nd Place Winner: Istanbul Airport, Turkey.
3rd Place Winner: University of Nevada, United States.
ROI Rock Star
Awarded to a SAS customer demonstrating the greatest business benefit and return on investment (ROI) using SAS products.
1st Place Winner: American Electric Power, United States.
2nd Place Winner: Enpara Bank, Turkey.
3rd Place Winner: UC AB, Sweden.
SAS Analytics Explorers Advocate
Awarded to a SAS customer who is using the SAS Analytics Explorers program to grow their skills, career and/or network..
1st Place Winner: DEG, Daniel Frank, Germany.
2nd Place Winner: Alira Health, Davide Marinucci, Italy.
3rd Place Winner: EY, Markus Weick, Germany.
Awards selected by SAS
SAS Customer Impact Award – Public Sector
Awarded to a public sector customer who has had the most impact through a willingness to share their analytics journey, successes and lessons learned with others.
Winner: AGEA, Italy.
AGEA has been greatly involved and committed to share their project and their partnership with SAS spending great words of appreciation for us, both in terms of solutions and people.
They have participated at events, talks, and released interviews highlighting how SAS is a critical player for their success. In addition, AGEA is part of a wide ecosystem made of several stakeholders and the key pillar sustaining Italian agriculture, which is a significant part of the Italian Gross Domestic Product and a crucial asset for environmental safety.
SAS Customer Impact Award – Private Sector
Awarded to a private sector customer who has had the most impact through a willingness to share their analytics journey, successes and lessons learned with others.
Winner: Georgia Pacific, United States.
Georgia-Pacific has been a SAS advocate since March 2020 when they first partnered with SAS to share their experience at SAS Global Forum that year. They have shared their voice consistently since then and were the first recipient of the Customer Impact Award in 2022. Just since last summer (2023), they have partnered with SAS on multiple video testimonials on topics ranging from Data Strategy, Computer Vision and Resiliency Rules which all supplement their original story on Optimizing the Supply Chain and equipment efficiency with analytics and IoT. They have done interviews with analysts and spoken at SAS and third-party events to showcase their innovative use of analytics. They have worked with SAS to publish multiple blog posts and articles on sas.com, provided quotes for press releases and supported the publication of their SAS story on the AWS website. The number of individuals from Georgia-Pacific who participate as SAS advocates continues to grow. In particular, we recognize Roshan Shah, who is accepting the award on their behalf and also Steve Bakalar, Sam Coyne, Chalamayya Batchu and Ron Oudenaarden. We appreciate them and their teams who are making a difference every day using SAS and are willing to share their experience to benefit others.
SAS Support Community Hero
Awarded to a customer that goes above and beyond helping other users on the SAS Support Community.
Winner: Mark Keintz, United States.
Mark has been a member since 2012. He has solved nearly 700 topics and posted more than 4,000 messages, mostly in the popular SAS Programming Community. He recently achieved PROC Star status, which celebrates active community members whose interactions on SAS Communities (the largest digital gathering of SAS practitioners) are exceptionally frequent and helpful. His years of wisdom from using SAS on the business side of academia enables him to dispense prompt, incisive assistance in the New SAS User Community.
Users Group MVP
Awarded to a Regional Users Group leader demonstrating a dedicated passion for the success of user group members.
Winner: Nancy Brucken, IQVIA, United States.
Nancy has been involved in planning and executing users group meetings since 1999. She is the webmaster for the Michigan SAS Users Group and a member of the Executive Committee for PharmaSUG. She is an integral member of both conferences, ensuring attendees get the educational experience they’ve come to expect from a user’s group. Her planning and attention detail led to one of the most successful local users group meetings, MSUG, in 2023. SAS thanks Nancy for helping to educate her peers for more than 20 years.
User Feedback Award
Awarded to a customer who provides valuable feedback on SAS products and has been an essential reference for product improvements.
Winner: Nick Tornabene, USAA, United States.
Nick has provided insight into the performance statistics achieved at USAA and worked with SAS R&D to identify areas that could be tuned or optimized based on the customer-specific scenarios. Nick’s feedback has been instrumental not only in the context of USAA but also in more general scenarios that other banks face. He offered valuable information, which helped SAS improve the SAS Risk Solutions and offer a more complete set of capabilities.
Check out some of our winner videos below!
Customer Impact Award - Public Sector Winner
User Feedback Award Winner
Innovative Problem Solver Winner
Curious Thinker Winner
