British tech tycoon Mike Lynch has been described as a “creator of dreams” who was “failed by his country and his peers” in the fight to clear his name of US fraud charges.
Mr Lynch, 59, was confirmed dead by local authorities on Thursday after the Bayesian superyacht he was on with his wife and daughter sunk in the early hours of Monday.
Five bodies identified; superyacht latest
David Yelland, Mr Lynch’s former PR adviser and former editor of The Sun newspaper, has paid tribute to him in a post on X.
He said: “All those that knew and loved Mike are thinking of Angela and their surviving daughter Esme as they struggle to come to terms with such unimaginable loss.
“We have lost a man who was failed in life by his country and his peers when he needed them most – as he looked for help in the unjust US demand that he be extradited – and he has then suffered the most unfair and brutal of fates.”
Mr Lynch was extradited to the US and spent a year under house arrest in San Francisco before he was cleared of 15 charges of fraud earlier this summer by a jury.
Prosecutors claimed he deliberately overstated the value of Autonomy, the company he founded in 1996, when he sold it to Hewlett Packard in 2011. He always denied wrongdoing.
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My Yelland said he had spoken to Mr Lynch just before he set sail on the yacht.
He also described him as a “dreamer of dreams not just for himself but for all those that knew him, worked with him or invested with him”.
The entrepreneur had “exciting plans to contribute much more to the country he loved,” he added.
Bayesian superyacht. Pic: Danny Wheelz
His wife Angela Bacares survived the disaster but his 18-year-old daughter Hannah is still missing.
Six people are now confirmed to have died on the yacht – Morgan Stanley chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy Bloomer, American lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda, and on-board chef Recaldo Thomas.
Lord Browne, former chief executive of BP and now chairman of BeyondNetZero, said Mr Lynch was “the person who catalysed a breed of deep tech entrepreneurs in the UK”.
“His ideas and his personal vision were a powerful contribution to science and technology in both Britain and globally. We have lost a human being of great ability,” he wrote.
Pictured in 2010. Pic: Shutterstock
‘Privileged to have known him’
Sky’s Ian King said he “feels very privileged to have known and spoken with Mike Lynch over many years”.
He described him as a “visionary and original thinker with a passion for building businesses”. “There are sadly too few like him in the UK,” he added.
David Tabizel, Mr Lynch’s co-founder at Autonomy, said: “It looks like we’ve lost our dear Dr Mike Lynch. RIP. The world has lost a genius. His family have lost a giant of a man.”
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The Royal Academy of Engineering, where Mr Lynch was a former council member, donor, and mentor, said it is “deeply saddened to learn of the death of Mike Lynch”.
Sending condolences to his family, they added: “Mike became a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2008 and we have fond memories of the active role he played in the past as a mentor, donor, and former council member. He was also one of the inaugural members on the enterprise committee.”
A spokesperson for technology industry group TechUK said: “Mike Lynch was a hugely significant and pioneering figure in the UK technology sector.
“Our hearts go out to all of the families and friends who have been impacted by these tragic events,” they said.
Mr Lynch’s Autonomy software was based on Bayesian statistical inference – where his family’s ill-fated yacht got its name.
The software’s global success earned him a reputation as the “British Bill Gates” and enabled companies to trawl through huge swathes of data more efficiently.
His Cambridge thesis is thought to be one of the most-read pieces of research in the institution’s library.
Jonathan Bloomer of Morgan Stanley Pic: Hiscox/ Linkedin
US lawyer Chris Morvillo Pic: Clifford Chance
There was huge outcry from politicians and business leaders when Home Secretary Priti Patel approved a judge’s extradition order for him to be sent to the US for trial in 2023.
The yacht trip around Sicily is believed to have been a celebration of the end of his legal troubles, with Mr Bloomer and Mr Morvillo having helped defend him in court.
