Michael Richard Lynch is an entrepreneur with a scientific background. He is the co-founder of Autonomy Corporation and the founder of Invoke Capital, and has several other roles, including membership of the Council for Science and Technology which advises the UK government. His entrepreneurship is associated with Silicon Fen. Lynch is known for his work applying techniques from signal processing and pattern recognition to unstructured information.
Early life and education
Lynch was born in Ilford, Essex in 1965 and grew up near Chelmsford, Essex. His mother was a nurse and his father a fireman. In 1976, aged 11, he won a scholarship to Bancroft's School, Woodford. From there he went to Christ's College, Cambridge to study Natural Sciences. He combined mathematics, biological and physical sciences, taking the combination of advanced physics, mathematics and biochemistry in the IB Tripos. For part II, he chose electrical sciences where he first met Peter Rayner, his mentor in the signal processing laboratory of the engineering department. After graduating he went on to do a PhD in signal processing and communications research at the University of Cambridge, and then undertook a research fellowship in adaptive pattern recognition.
Entrepreneurial career
In 1991 he set up Cambridge Neurodynamics, which specialized in computer-based finger print recognition. In 1996 Lynch co-founded Autonomy Corporation. and he served Autonomy as CEO. During this time Autonomy acquired Dremedia, Virage, Verity, Zantaz and Interwoven. In October 2011 Autonomy was sold to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion. In May 2012, HP fired Mike Lynch and later recorded a writedown of around $8.8 billion related to the acquisition due to "extensive accounting errors and misrepresentations" at Autonomy. Lynch faces charges in the US and UK related to the allegations. In February 2013, Lynch raised $1 billion through his Invoke Capital fund to invest in up and coming British technology companies. In September 2013, Lynch announced Invoke had made its first investment, putting up to $20m into Darktrace which describes itself as "the world's first behavioural cyber defence platform." In July 2015, Summit Partners invested a further $22.5 million in Darktrace, valuing the company at $120million.
In 1996, Lynch was given an achievement award by the Institution of Electrical Engineers. In 2000,Time Digital Europe included Lynch in their Digital 25 list of notable technology figures. Lynch was awarded an OBE in the 2006 New Year Honours. In June 2008, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. In October 2008, Silicon.com named him one of the top five most influential people in technology along with Tim Berners-Lee, Steve Jobs, Jimmy Wales and Eric Schmidt. In 2014 he was a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Suffolk. The Financial Times has described Lynch as "the doyen of European software". PC Advisor has called him "Britain's most successful technology entrepreneur". In a profile in the Sunday Times, it was suggested in passing that Lynch is the nearest thing Britain has to Bill Gates.
Disputes
Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, once claimed that "Mr Lynch has a very poor memory or he is lying" about activities that took place in a meeting in April 2011. Lynch and investment banker Frank Quattrone contest Ellison's account of this meeting. On 20 November 2012, Hewlett-Packard announced a writedown of assets following their purchase of Autonomy due to "disclosure failures and outright misrepresentations", which occurred before the acquisition. The total writedown amounted to $8.8bn of the purchase cost of more than $10bn. Lynch has contested these irregularities. Autonomy's financial statement auditor Deloitte has publicly supported Lynch's opinion. HP's claims were investigated at HP's request by the UK Serious Fraud Office, but the SFO announced in January 2015 that it was ending its investigation with no action. Lynch still faces charges in the US and UK related to the allegations. On 29 November 2018 he was indicted for fraud in relation to the 2011 deal with HP. He was later arrested as part of an extradition process in February 2020 and will contest extradition having said that he "vigorously rejects all allegations against him."
Personal life
He is married and has two daughters. His entry in Who's Who lists his recreations as Jazz saxophone and preserving rare breeds.
