Mike Lynch (businessman)

For other people named Michael Lynch, see Michael Lynch (disambiguation).

Mike Lynch OBE DL FRS FREng
File:Dr Michael Lynch OBE FREng FRS.jpg Lynch in 2014
Born	Michael Richard Lynch (1965-06-16)16 June 1965 Ilford, London Borough of Redbridge, England
Died	Mediterranean Sea, off Sicily
Citizenship	United Kingdom
Fields	Software engineering
Alma mater	University of Cambridge (MA, PhD)
Thesis	Adaptive techniques in signal processing and connectionist models (1990)
Doctoral advisor	Peter J.W. Rayner
Known for	Autonomy Corporation
Spouse	Angela Bacares

Michael Richard Lynch OBE DL FRS FREng (16 June 1965 – 19 August 2024) was a British technology entrepreneur who co-founded Autonomy Corporation and founded Invoke Capital. He then became a co-founder, alongside Invoke Capital, of the cybersecurity company Darktrace. He had various other roles, including in an advisory capacity.

Following a degree, PhD and post-doctoral research at Cambridge University, Lynch applied his research in machine learning to set up software companies and become a major figure in Silicon Fen. He was described in the press as the British equivalent of the American businessman Bill Gates, with an estimated worth of £852 million in 2023.

The sale of Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011 led to accusations of fraud and resulted in civil litigation in the UK and Lynch's extradition to the US. He went on trial in 2024 and was found not guilty of all charges.

In August 2024, Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah were among six who died, when his family's superyacht, Bayesian, capsized and sank off the coast of Sicily.

Early life and education

Lynch was born in Ilford, London Borough of Redbridge, in 1965. and grew up near Chelmsford in Essex. His mother was a nurse from County Tipperary and his father a firefighter from County Cork in Ireland.

Aged 11, he won a scholarship to Bancroft's School, Woodford. He was later the lead Patron of the Bancroft's Foundation, which was established to provide means-tested scholarship support to enable bright pupils to study at the school regardless of family income. From Bancroft's he went to Christ's College, Cambridge, to study Natural Sciences. After graduating he studied for a PhD in artificial neural networks (a form of machine learning) under the supervision of Peter Rayner, director of studies in engineering at Christ's College, and produced a thesis with the title Adaptive techniques in signal processing and connectionist models. He undertook a research fellowship in adaptive pattern recognition.

Career

Lynch set up his first company in the late 1980s, while he was studying for his PhD. Lynett Systems Ltd was financed with a £2,000 loan negotiated in a bar, and produced designs and audio products including synthesisers and a sampler for the Atari ST. In 1991, he founded Cambridge Neurodynamics, which specialised in computer-based fingerprint recognition. There were three spin-offs from Cambridge Neurodynamics: Neurascript, which searched business documents based on character recognition and was bought by German company Dicom in 2004; NCorp, which searched databases; and Autonomy which searched unstructured sources including phone calls, emails and videos.

In 1996, Lynch founded Autonomy, a search software company, with David Tabizel and Richard Gaunt. With Lynch as chief executive officer (CEO), Autonomy become one of the UK's top 100 public companies, and a leading company in Silicon Fen. Lynch was described in the press as the British equivalent of the American businessman Bill Gates. In October 2011, Autonomy was sold to Hewlett-Packard for more than $11 billion (£8.6 billion). Lynch made an estimated $800 million from the sale.

After the sale, Lynch founded a venture capital firm, Invoke Capital. One of the first companies backed by Invoke Capital was cybersecurity firm Darktrace. Invoke Capital became the biggest shareholder of Darktrace, with Lynch and his wife Angela Bacares being the second biggest, holding shares worth nearly £200 million. Many of the staff at Darktrace, including its CEO, had moved across from Autonomy and Lynch was a member of the board until 2018 and continued as a member of the advisory council until 2021. Lynch was a member of the Darktrace science and technology council until February 2023. As well as having to deal with questions about Lynch's involvement with the company, Darktrace had to counter scepticism about its technology which analysts had referred to as "snake oil".

Other technology companies backed by Invoke Capital include Featurespace, which specialises in software to detect and prevent fraud and financial crime. Invoke Capital has invested in the legal technology firm Luminance, established in collaboration with Slaughter and May. Sophia Genetics, a Swiss medical data company, is also backed by Invoke Capital.

As a leading technology entrepreneur, Lynch held a number of positions on boards and committees. When he was charged with fraud in the United States he resigned from his role as a government advisor on the Council for Science and Technology and from Royal Society committees. He had previously been on the board of Cambridge Enterprise, Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, the BBC, the British Library, Nesta, and the Francis Crick Institute.

Civil and criminal cases

See also: Hewlett-Packard § Takeover of Autonomy

In November 2012, Hewlett-Packard announced a $8.8 billion (£5.5 billion) writedown of assets following their purchase of Autonomy due to "serious accounting improprieties, disclosure failures and outright misrepresentations" which occurred before the acquisition and artificially inflated the value of Autonomy. Lynch denied the allegations. The allegations were investigated by the UK Serious Fraud Office, who announced in January 2015 that it was ending its investigation with no action due to insufficient evidence in respect of some aspects of the allegations, while other aspects were ceded to the US authorities. In November 2018, Lynch was indicted for fraud in the US along with Stephen Chamberlain, former vice president of finance at Autonomy. Earlier in 2018 Sushovan Hussain, Autonomy's former finance chief officer, had been found guilty of fraud in the US and sentenced to five years in prison.

File:Rolls Building, Royal Courts of Justice.jpg

The civil case was heard at the Rolls Building

In March 2019, Hewlett-Packard brought a civil action for fraud in the High Court in London. The action alleged that Autonomy CFO Sushovan Hussain and founder Lynch "artificially inflated Autonomy's reported revenues, revenue growth and gross margins". The case was heard by Justice Hildyard sitting for 93 days over a period of nine months at the Rolls Building. The judge delivered his conclusions in January 2022, ruling that Hewlett-Packard had substantially succeeded in their claims. Damages were to be decided later, but the judge said they were likely to be considerably less than the $5 billion claimed by Hewlett Packard.

While the civil trial was taking place in London, the American authorities were seeking Lynch's extradition to face criminal charges of conspiracy and fraud in the US. Through his lawyers, Lynch said he "vigorously rejects all the allegations". As a formality, he submitted himself for arrest in February 2020, and was released on bail of £10 million by Westminster Magistrates' Court. The case created a debate about the workings of the Anglo-American extradition treaty of 2003, with five former cabinet ministers signing a letter to The Times arguing against the extradition and MP David Davis saying in parliament that it was an attempt by the American authorities to "exercise extraterritorial jurisdiction".

In July 2021 a district judge ruled at Westminster Magistrates' Court that Lynch could be extradited to the US. Lynch applied for a judicial review; the application was rejected by High Court Judge Mr Justice Swift in January 2022 and Home secretary Priti Patel approved his extradition. During the extradition proceedings Lynch was represented by Alex Bailin KC, who argued that Lynch should face trial in the UK. After a further appeal failed, Lynch was flown to the US in May 2023, and held under house arrest in San Francisco to await trial.

Lynch and Chamberlain went on trial in San Francisco on 18 March 2024. Lynch was charged with 16 counts of wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy, while Chamberlain faced 15 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy. Both pleaded not guilty. The court heard evidence and arguments over the course of 11 weeks, and one count of securities fraud was dropped. The jury retired for deliberation on 4 June. On 6 June, Lynch and Chamberlain were found not guilty of all charges. Chamberlain died after being struck by a car while running in Stretham, Cambridgeshire, on 17 August.

Βoat accident

Lynch's Perini Navi–built 56-metre (184 ft) super yacht Bayesian sank off the coast of Sicily, on 19 August 2024, with Lynch and twenty-one other persons onboard. The yacht was named after the eighteenth-century British statistician Thomas Bayes. According to witnesses, the yacht, which was anchored off Porticello and carrying twenty-two people, was struck by a waterspout during a powerful storm in the early hours of the morning. There were initial reports that that boat's mast may have snapped causing the vessel to become unbalanced. But search and rescue divers later noted that the ship seemed to be intact, suggesting the mast might not have broken. Other factors in the capsize could have included water entering through hatches and doors which may have been left open.

Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, was among the 15 people rescued. The yacht was owned by the Isle of Man–registered company Revtom Limited, itself owned by Bacares. Five bodies have been recovered from the vessel after several days, though not yet identified.

Personal life

File:Loudham Hall - geograph.org.uk - 3974851.jpg

Loudham Hall in Pettistree

Lynch was married to Angela Bacares and they had two daughters. In 2023, the Sunday Times Rich List estimated the couple's net worth at £852 million. His entry in Who's Who lists his recreations as jazz saxophone and preserving rare breeds. He kept a herd of Red Poll cattle on his Loudham Hall estate at Pettistree, in East Suffolk.

Awards and honours

Lynch was awarded an OBE for services to enterprise in the 2006 New Year Honours. In June 2008, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. In 2011, he was named as the most influential person in UK IT by Computer Weekly. In 2014, Lynch was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and made a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Suffolk. He was a Lady Margaret Beaufort Fellow at Christ's College, Cambridge.

External links

• Mike Lynch on LinkedIn