Tributes paid to ‘UK’s biggest tech entrepreneur’

Buddies and colleagues of Mike Lynch have paid tribute to “the UK’s biggest tech entrepreneur” after he was confirmed to have died when a luxurious yacht sank off the coast of Sicily.

The British businessman, 59, was killed, alongside together with his daughter Hannah, 18, and 5 different individuals when the boat foundered in stormy climate early on Monday.

Their our bodies have been recovered following a search by divers spanning a number of days, with Hannah’s the final to be introduced ashore, on Friday.

Mr Lynch was a distinguished determine within the UK tech business, the place his backing of profitable firms led to him being dubbed the British equal of Microsoft founder Invoice Gates.

Nonetheless, he later turned embroiled in a long-running authorized dispute which resulted in him being controversially extradited to the US, earlier than being acquitted earlier this summer season.

In a press release on Friday, a spokesperson for the Lynch household mentioned it was a time of “unspeakable grief” for them.

“The Lynch household is devastated, in shock and is being comforted and supported by household and pals. Their ideas are with everybody affected by the tragedy,” they mentioned.

Andrew Kanter, an in depth pal and colleague of Mr Lynch, mentioned he was “probably the most sensible thoughts and caring particular person I’ve ever recognized.”

“Over almost 1 / 4 century I had the privilege of working beside somebody unrivalled of their understanding of expertise and enterprise,” he mentioned.

Former Solar newspaper editor David Yelland mentioned Mr Lynch was “an irreplaceable loss not solely to people who cherished him but in addition to the nation”.

“He’s the UK’s biggest tech entrepreneur of latest a long time, a household man, a long-time shopper of my enterprise and a pal,” he mentioned.

“To assume Mike Lynch misplaced his life simply as he started to rebuild it’s devastating for all people who know him.”

Morgan Stanley Worldwide financial institution chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his spouse Judy Bloomer, Clifford Likelihood lawyer Chris Morvillo, his spouse Neda Morvillo and Recaldo Thomas, the yacht’s chef, additionally died when the vessel sank.

In a press release confirming their mother and father’ deaths, the Bloomer household described the couple as “unbelievable individuals and an inspiration to many”.

Mr Lynch is survived by his spouse Angela Bacares, who was rescued, together with 14 others, after the yacht sank, in addition to their elder daughter Esme.

Mike Lynch and Angela Barcares lived on the Loudham Corridor property in Suffolk.

Brent Hoberman, co-founder of Lastminute.com, described the occasions as “tragic”, saying Mr Lynch had far more to provide to the UK tech scene.

“He was nonetheless on his journey, and he’d been sidetracked for a decade with this court docket case,” he instructed the BBC.

“I believe there was a variety of unfulfilled potential.”

IT analyst Richard Holway mentioned in a submit on LinkedIn that Mr Lynch – a pal of greater than 25 years – was “a novel British tech expertise”.

“Goodness is aware of what he may have achieved subsequent,” he added.

Mr Lynch co-founded tech agency Autonomy in 1996, which expanded quickly and was offered to Hewlett Packard for $11bn (£8.6bn) in 2011, from which he’s believed to have netted £500m.

However questions over the sale of Autonomy led to a long-running authorized battle.

In 2022, Mr Lynch misplaced a civil fraud case in opposition to HP on the Excessive Court docket in London.

A day later, he was extradited to the US as a part of felony proceedings, and was dealing with a potential 20 years in jail.

He was acquitted in June this yr after a jury discovered him not responsible of the crimes.

He instructed BBC Radio 4 that although he was satisfied of his innocence, he was solely capable of show it in a US court docket as a result of he was wealthy sufficient to pay the large authorized charges concerned.

Mr Lynch is reported to have gone on the yacht journey together with his household to rejoice securing his freedom.

Its identify, Bayesian, is known to derive from the idea that his PhD thesis – and the software program that underpinned Autonomy – was based mostly on.

Witnesses say its aluminium mast broke in half in a storm, inflicting the ship to lose its steadiness and sink.

Dick Smith, a neighbour of Mr Lynch, instructed the BBC he was “reeling from the shock of the information”.

“He was so approachable and an easy particular person to speak to with a pleasant sense of humour,” he mentioned.

“You would possibly assume with all that cash he could be troublesome to speak to, however in reality he was an easy particular person to speak to.”

Born on 16 June 1965, Mr Lynch was the son of a nurse and a fireman, and was raised close to Chelmsford in Essex.

His first laptop was a BBC Micro, and he wrote fondly of the way it formed his ardour for programming in a 2011 BBC article celebrating 30 years of the system.

Whereas in school his “first foray into commercialisation of expertise” got here when designing a digital sampler that might pattern music, then promoting the designs, based on a 2017 interview.

He continued the interest whereas learning Pure Sciences on the College of Cambridge – the place he mentioned he irritated his school by getting “solder within the carpets” of his room.

Whereas at Cambridge he earned a PhD in mathematical computing, and later undertook a analysis fellowship.

In 1991, Mr Lynch helped set up Cambridge Neurodynamics – a agency which specialised in utilizing computer-based detection and recognition of fingerprints.

His tech agency Autonomy was created 5 years later, utilizing a statistical methodology often known as “Bayesian inference” on the core of its software program.

The corporate’s fast-paced development and success all through the late Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s noticed Mr Lynch earn a lot of awards and accolades.

In 2006 he was awarded an OBE in recognition of his service to UK enterprise.

He served on the board of the BBC as a non-executive director, and in 2011 was appointed to the federal government’s council for science and expertise – advising then-Prime Minister David Cameron on the dangers and potentialities of AI improvement.

Following the sale of Autonomy, Mr Lynch established tech agency Invoke Capital, which helped create distinguished UK cybersecurity agency Darktrace in 2013. Lynch had a seat on its board till earlier this yr.

Reacting to the information on Thursday, a spokesperson for Darktrace mentioned that they have been shocked by the tragedy, describing Mr Lynch as an “energetic champion” of the UK’s expertise sector.

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