Tributes paid to ‘UK’s biggest tech entrepreneur’

Friends and colleagues of Mike Lynch have paid tribute to “the UK’s biggest tech entrepreneur” after he was confirmed dead when his luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily.

A British businessman, 59, was one of the dead when the Bayesian ship foundered due to the storm on Monday morning near Porticello.

The bodies of five others have been recovered, while a seventh person – believed to be Mr Lynch’s daughter Hannah, 18, has not been found.

Mr Lynch was a prominent figure in the UK technology industry, where his backing of successful companies led to him being called the British equivalent of Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

However, he later became embroiled in a long-running legal battle that led to his extradition to the US, before he was released earlier this summer.

Andrew Kanter, a close friend and colleague of Mr Lynch, said he was “the most intelligent and caring person I have ever known.”

“For almost a quarter of a century, I have had the privilege of working alongside a person who is unrivaled in their understanding of technology and business,” he said.

Former Solezwe newspaper editor David Yelland said Mr Lynch was “an irreparable loss not only to those who loved him but to the whole country”.

“He is the UK’s biggest technology entrepreneur in recent decades, a family man, a long-term client of my business and a friend,” he said.

“To think that Mike Lynch lost his life while he was trying to rebuild it is devastating to all who knew him.”

Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy Bloomer, Clifford Chance attorney Chris Morvillo, his wife Neda Morvillo and Recaldo Thomas, the boat’s chef, also died when the ship sank.

In a statement confirming their parents’ deaths, the Bloomer family described the couple as “wonderful people and an inspiration to many”.

Mr Lynch is survived by his wife Angela Bacares, who was rescued along with 14 others, after the boat capsized. The couple lived at Loudham Hall in Suffolk.

Brent Hoberman, founder of Lastminute.com, described the deaths as tragic, saying Mr Lynch had a lot to offer the UK tech scene.

“He was still on his journey, and it’s been ten years since he was interrupted by this case,” he told the BBC.

“I think there was a lot of unrealized potential.”

IT analyst Richard Holway said in a post on LinkedIn that Mr Lynch – a friend of more than 25 years – was “a uniquely British talent”.

“Goodness knows what he would get next,” he added.

Mr Lynch founded technology company Autonomy in 1996, which grew rapidly and was sold to Hewlett Packard for $11bn (£8.6bn) in 2011, believed to have made £500m.

But questions about the sale of Autonomy led to a protracted legal battle.

In 2022, Mr Lynch lost a fraud case against HP at the High Court in London.

After a day, he was taken out in the US as part of the criminal charges, and was facing twenty years in prison.

He came forward in June this year after a jury found him not guilty of the charges.

He told BBC Radio 4 that although he was convinced of his innocence, he was only able to prove this in an American court. because he was very rich paying the huge legal fees involved.

Mr Lynch reportedly went on a yacht trip with his family to celebrate his freedom.

Its name, Bayesian, is understood to be derived from the theory that his PhD thesis – and the software that underpinned Autonomy – was based on.

Eyewitnesses said that the aluminum mast broke in half during the storm, causing the ship to lose weight and sink.

Dick Smith, a neighbor of Mr Lynch, told the BBC he was “overwhelmed by the shock of the news”.

“He was approachable and easy to talk to with a good sense of humor,” he said.

“You’d think with all that money it would be hard to talk to him, but he was actually a very easy person to talk to.”

Born on 16 June 1965, Mr Lynch was the son of a nurse and a fireman, and grew up near Chelmsford in Essex.

His first computer was a BBC Micro, and he lovingly wrote about how it developed his love of programming in a 2011 BBC article. to celebrate the 30th anniversary of this app.

While in school his “first foray into commercialization” came when he designed a digital sampler that could sample music, then sell the designs, according to a 2017 interview.

He pursued the hobby while studying Natural Sciences at Cambridge University – which is where he says he angered his college by being “sold on the carpet” in his room.

While at Cambridge he received a PhD in mathematical computing, and later held a research fellowship.

In 1991, Mr Lynch helped found Cambridge Neurodynamics – a firm specializing in the application of computer-based detection and recognition of fingerprints.

His technology company Autonomy was founded five years later, using a mathematical technique known as “Bayesian inference” at the core of its software.

The company’s rapid growth and success in the late 1990s and early 2000s saw Mr Lynch win numerous awards and accolades.

In 2006 he was awarded an OBE in recognition of his services to UK business.

He served on the board of the BBC as a non-executive director, and in 2011 was appointed to the government’s science and technology council – advising the then Prime Minister David Cameron on the risks and opportunities of AI development.

After the sale of Autonomy, Mr Lynch founded the technology firm Invoke Capital, which helped create the famous UK cybersecurity firm Darktrace in 2013. Lynch had a seat on its board until earlier this year.

Responding to the news on Thursday, a spokesperson for Darktrace said they were shocked by the tragedy, describing Mr Lynch as a “working champion” of the UK technology sector.

“His loss will be felt by many,” they added.