| Birth Name: | Michael Richard Lynch |
| Birth Date: | 16 June 1965 |
| Birth Place: | Ilford, London Borough of Redbridge, England |
| Disappeared Place: | Mediterranean Sea, off Sicily |
| Citizenship: | United Kingdom |
| Fields: | Software engineering |
| Alma Mater: | University of Cambridge (MA, PhD) |
| Thesis Title: | Adaptive techniques in signal processing and connectionist models |
| Thesis Url: | https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/244884 |
| Thesis Year: | 1990 |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Peter J.W. Rayner |
| Known For: | Autonomy Corporation |
| Signature Alt: | »« |
| Spouse: | Angela Bacares |
Michael Richard Lynch (born 16 June 1965) is a British technology entrepreneur, known as the co-founder of Autonomy Corporation and the founder of Invoke Capital. Lynch additionally became a co-founder, alongside Invoke Capital, of cybersecurity company Darktrace. He has also had various other roles, including in an advisory capacity.
Following a degree, PhD and post-doctoral research at Cambridge University, he applied his research in machine learning to set up software companies and become a major figure in Silicon Fen. 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, where he went on trial in March 2024 and was found not guilty of all charges in June 2024.
He has been missing since 19 August 2024, after the family superyacht Bayesian sank off the coast of Sicily.
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.[1]
Aged 11, he won a scholarship to Bancroft's School, Woodford.[2] 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.[3] From Bancroft's he went to Christ's College, Cambridge, to study Natural Sciences.[4] After graduating he went on to study 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.[5] [6] He then undertook a research fellowship in adaptive pattern recognition.[7]
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 for the music industry, including electronic synthesizers and a sampler for the Atari ST.[8] [9] In 1991 he founded Cambridge Neurodynamics, which specialized in computer-based fingerprint recognition.[8] 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.[10] [11]
Autonomy was founded in 1996 by Lynch, David Tabizel and Richard Gaunt.[8] With Lynch as chief executive officer (CEO), the search software company grew to become one of the UK's top 100 public companies, and a leading company in Silicon Fen.[11] [2] In October 2011 Autonomy was sold to Hewlett-Packard for more than $11 billion (£8.6 billion).[11] The sale would eventually lead to civil and criminal cases against Lynch and Autonomy's chief financial officer (CFO) Sushovan Hussain.[11]
After the sale of Autonomy, Lynch founded a venture capital firm called Invoke Capital.[2] One of the first companies backed by Invoke Capital was cybersecurity firm Darktrace.[8] 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 has also had to counter scepticism about its technology which analysts had referred to as "snake oil".[2] [12]
Other technology companies backed by Invoke Capital include Featurespace, which specialises in software to detect and prevent fraud and financial crime.[13] Invoke Capital has invested in the legal technology firm Luminance, established in collaboration with Slaughter and May.[14] Sophia Genetics, a Swiss medical data company, is also backed by Invoke Capital.[15]
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.[16]
Lynch made an estimated $800 million from the 2011 sale of Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard, but the sale would prove problematic and leave him facing civil claims and criminal charges.[17]
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.[18] 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.[19] 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.[20] [21]
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.[21] [22] [23] 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.[21] [23]
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.[24] 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".[25] [26]
In July 2021 a district judge ruled at Westminster Magistrates' Court that Lynch could be extradited to the US.[27] 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.[28] [23] During the extradition proceedings Lynch was represented by Alex Bailin KC, who argued that Lynch should face trial in the UK.[25] 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.[29]
Lynch, together with 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 defendants pleaded not guilty.[30] The court heard evidence and arguments over the course of 11 weeks, with the number of charges being reduced from 16 to 15 as one count of securities fraud was dropped. The jury retired for deliberation on 4 June 2024.[31] On 6 June 2024, Lynch and Chamberlain were found not guilty of all charges.[32]
Chamberlain died after being struck by a car while out running in Stretham on 17 August 2024.[33]
After his acquittal, Lynch celebrated with a cruise on the family superyacht Bayesian. Joining him were his wife and youngest daughter, two lawyers from his defense team with their partners, a witness in his trial with his partner, and a colleague with her partner and baby daughter. The yacht had a crew of 10.[34] The yacht was anchored off the coast of Sicily, outside the harbour of the fishing village Porticello, when it was struck by a storm and sank in the early hours of 19 August 2024. Fifteen people were rescued, including nine members of the crew, Lynch’s wife and five guests. One crew member was confirmed dead, while Lynch, his daughter and four guests were still missing the following day as divers from the Italian fire brigade tried to reach the cabins of the yacht.[34]
Lynch is married to Angela Bacares and they have two daughters.[2] His entry in Who's Who lists his recreations as jazz saxophone and preserving rare breeds.He keeps a herd of Red Poll cattle on his Loudham Hall estate at Pettistree, in East Suffolk.[35]
Lynch was awarded an OBE for services to enterprise in the 2006 New Year Honours.[2]
In June 2008, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.[36]
In 2011, he was named as the most influential person in UK IT by Computer Weekly.[37]
In 2014, Lynch was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society[38] and made a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Suffolk.[39]
He is a Lady Margaret Beaufort Fellow at Christ's College, Cambridge.[4]