Neal L. Patterson (December 10, 1949 – July 9, 2017) was an American businessman who was

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Cerner Corporation Cerner Corporation is an American supplier of health information technology (HIT) services, devices, and hardware. As of February 2018, its products were in use at more than 27,000 facilities around the world. The company had more than 29,000 emp ...

, a

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

-based medical software corporation. Patterson was also owner of the

Sporting Kansas City Sporting Kansas City, often shortened to Sporting KC, is an American men's professional Association football, soccer club based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The administrative offices are located in Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, and t ...

soccer team.

Early life

Patterson grew up on the family farm in South Central Kansas near

Manchester, Oklahoma Manchester is a town in Grant County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 103 at the 2010 census, a decline of 1.0 percent from 104 at the 2000 census. Geography Manchester is located in northwest Grant County just south of the Oklahoma- ...

and received his bachelors and Masters from

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

in 1971 and 1972. Following a stint with

Arthur Andersen Arthur Andersen was an American accounting firm based in Chicago that provided auditing, tax advising, consulting and other professional services to large corporations. By 2001, it had become one of the world's largest multinational corporat ...

, he and Arthur Andersen colleagues Cliff Illig and Paul Gorup founded Cerner in 1979.

Military service

Patterson served in the Army National Guard during Vietnam, though only served on active duty during basic training.

Management

Patterson was featured in the ''USA Today'' article titled "Scandals lead execs to ''Atlas Shrugged''" as a member of a group of CEOs who have a working knowledge of

Ayn Rand Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;, . Most sources transliterate her given name as either ''Alisa'' or ''Alissa''. , 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and p ...

's ''

Atlas Shrugged ''Atlas Shrugged'' is a 1957 novel by Ayn Rand. It was her longest novel, the fourth and final one published during her lifetime, and the one she considered her '' magnum opus'' in the realm of fiction writing. ''Atlas Shrugged'' includes eleme ...

''. He became a member of the

Pi Kappa Alpha Pi Kappa Alpha (), commonly known as PIKE, is a college fraternity founded at the University of Virginia in 1868. The fraternity has over 225 chapters and colonies across the United States and abroad with over 15,500 undergraduate members over 30 ...

fraternity at Oklahoma State University. Patterson is infamous for an email scolding managers for not coming to work before 8 am and leaving before 5 pm, now a prominent example used when discussing email

netiquette Etiquette in technology, colloquially referred to as netiquette is a term used to refer to the unofficial code of policies that encourage good behavior on the Internet which is used to regulate respect and polite behavior on social media platforms ...

. On the day that the email was posted to

Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Man ...

, the company's market cap fell by over 22% from a high of US$1.5 billion. In April 2010, ''Forbes'' named Patterson fourth on its annual list of "America's Best-Performing Bosses" based on a formula for calculating which executives delivered the best shareholder value relative to their total compensation. Factors included stock performance relative to industry peers over the past six years, annualized stock performance during the leader's total tenure and performance relative to the S&P 500 over that time, and total compensation over the past six years.

Sporting Kansas City

On August 31, 2006, Patterson and five other individuals purchased

(then known as the Kansas City Wizards), a

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

team, from

Lamar Hunt Lamar Hunt (August 2, 1932 – December 13, 2006) was an American businessman most notable for his promotion of American football, soccer, and tennis in the United States. He was the principal founder of the American Football League (AFL) and ...

. The other members of the ownership group at the time of purchase were Cliff Illig, Rock Island Capital’s Robb Heineman, Greg Maday, David French, and Pat Curran, founder of C3 Holdings. The group stated its intention to keep Sporting Kansas City in the Kansas City area.

Death

Patterson died on July 9, 2017, from complications from soft-tissue cancer, which was diagnosed in January 2016 and that he had been previously treated for.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Patterson, Neal 1949 births 2017 deaths American technology chief executives Objectivists People from Anthony, Kansas People from the Kansas City metropolitan area People from Grant County, Oklahoma Oklahoma State University alumni Sporting Kansas City