Michael Richard Lynch

Michael Richard Lynch OBE DL FRS FREng (born 16 June 1965)[1] 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.[7][8][9]

For other people named Michael Lynch, see Michael Lynch (disambiguation).

Michael Richard Lynch

OBE DL FRS FREng
Michael Lynch in 2014, portrait via the Royal Society
Born (1965-06-16) 16 June 1965[1]
Ilford, Essex
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge (BA, PhD)
Known forAutonomy Corporation Invoke Capital Darktrace Luminance
Awards
Scientific career
Institutions
ThesisAdaptive techniques in signal processing and connectionist models (1990)
Doctoral advisorPeter J.W. Rayner[4][5][6]

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.[10]

In 1976, aged 11, he won a scholarship to Bancroft's School, Woodford.[11] 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,[4][5][6][12] his mentor in the signal processing laboratory of the engineering department. After graduating he went on to do a PhD in signal processing[13] and communications research at the University of Cambridge, and then undertook a research fellowship in adaptive pattern recognition.[14]

Entrepreneurial career

In 1991 he set up Cambridge Neurodynamics, which specialized in computer-based finger print recognition.[15]

In 1996 Lynch co-founded Autonomy Corporation.[16] and he served Autonomy as CEO. During this time Autonomy acquired Dremedia, Virage ($13m), Verity ($500m), Zantaz ($375m) and Interwoven ($606m).[17]

In October 2011 Autonomy was sold to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion.[7] In May 2012, HP fired Mike Lynch[18] and later recorded a writedown of around $8.8 billion related to the acquisition due to "extensive accounting errors and misrepresentations" at Autonomy.[19] Lynch faces charges in the US and UK related to the allegations.[20]

In February 2013, Lynch raised $1 billion through his Invoke Capital fund to invest in up and coming British technology companies.[21] In September 2013, Lynch announced Invoke had made its first investment, putting up to $20m into Darktrace (alongside Hoxton Ventures and Talis Capital) which describes itself as "the world's first behavioural cyber defence platform."[22][23][24] Most recently, Darktrace closed a $50 million Series E in 2018 led by Vitruvian Partners, and is expected to IPO in early 2021.[25]

Other interests

He is a member of the board of Cambridge Enterprise,[26] and a member of the Council for Science and Technology.[27] He is also a member of the Council of the Foundation for Science and Technology[28] and a Hub Mentor in the Enterprise Hub of the Royal Academy of Engineering.[29] Lynch is a trustee of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew,[30] and a member of the board of the Create the Change Campaign at the Crick Institute, for Cancer Research UK.[31]

He was a non-executive director of Blinkx plc.[32]

He has previously served as a non-executive director to the board of the BBC,[14] on the board of the British Library,[33] and as a trustee of the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA), where he was chairman of their investment committee.[34]

Awards, honours and media coverage

In 1996, Lynch was given an achievement award by the Institution of Electrical Engineers.[35]

In 2000,Time Digital Europe included Lynch in their Digital 25 list of notable technology figures.[36]

Lynch was awarded an OBE in the 2006 New Year Honours.[37]

In June 2008, he was elected a Fellow[2] of the Royal Academy of Engineering.[38]

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.[39]

In 2014 he was a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Suffolk.[40]

The Financial Times has described Lynch as "the doyen of European software".[41] PC Advisor has called him "Britain's most successful technology entrepreneur".[42] In a 2009 profile in the Sunday Times, it was suggested in passing that Lynch is the nearest thing Britain has to Bill Gates.[43][44][45]

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.[46] Lynch and investment banker Frank Quattrone contest Ellison's account of this meeting.[47]

See also: Hewlett-Packard § Takeover of Autonomy

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.[48] The total writedown amounted to $8.8bn of the purchase cost of more than $10bn.[49] Lynch has contested these irregularities.[50] Autonomy's financial statement auditor Deloitte has publicly supported Lynch's opinion.[51]

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 due to insufficient evidence.[52] Lynch subsequently faced 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.[53] This case was heard in a UK civil trial lasting 93 days, with Lynch present in the witness box for 22 days, making it one of the longest cross-examinations in British legal history.[54] Lynch is currently awaiting judgement. In February 2021 another British court will begin considering whether the UK should extradite him to California to face charges brought by the US Department of Justice.[55][56] Lynch is contesting extradition having said that he "vigorously rejects all allegations against him."[57][58][59]

Personal life

He is married and has two daughters.[60] His entry in Who's Who (UK) lists his recreations as Jazz saxophone and preserving rare breeds.[1]

References
  1. "LYNCH, Michael Richard". Who's Who. ukwhoswho.com. 2015 (online edition via Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. (subscription or UK public library membership required) (subscription required)
  2. "List of Fellows".
  3. "Dr Michael Lynch OBE FREng FRS". Archived from the original on 2 May 2014.
  4. "The Quest for Meaning". Wired. February 2000.
  5. Rayner, P. J.; Lynch, M. R. (1990). "Complexity reduction in Volterra connectionist modelling by consideration of output mapping". International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing. p. 885. doi:10.1109/ICASSP.1990.115982.
  6. Rayner, P. J. W.; Lynch, M. R. (1989). "A new connectionist model based on a non-linear adaptive filter". International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing. p. 1191. doi:10.1109/ICASSP.1989.266647.
  7. Profile: Mike Lynch The Guardian, 19 August 2011
  8. "Good Listener". Director magazine. May 2011. Archived from the original on 25 October 2011.
  9. "Britain's first software billionaire". salon.com. July 2000. (interview)
  10. Business big shot: Mike Lynch of Autonomy The Times, 8 July 2008
  11. "OBA President's Report - 2009" (PDF).
  12. "RAYNER, Prof. Peter John Wynn". Who's Who. ukwhoswho.com. 2015 (online edition via Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. (subscription or UK public library membership required) (subscription required)
  13. Lynch, Michael Richard (1990). Adaptive techniques in signal processing and connectionist models (DPhil thesis). University of Cambridge.
  14. "BBC - Press Office - BBC appoints Executive Board". Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  15. Security Group Seminar Archived 2 December 2012 at the Wayback Machine University of Cambridge
  16. The Kindness of Strangers VNU Net
  17. Autonomy to buy Zantaz for $375m, place shares Reuters, 3 July 2007
  18. HP fires Mike Lynch PCR, 25 May 2012
  19. Garside, Juliette; correspondent, telecoms (3 February 2014). "Autonomy made 80% less UK profit than stated, Hewlett-Packard finds". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  20. Jolly, Jasper (12 December 2019). "Autonomy founder Mike Lynch accused of lying in fraud trial". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  21. Ben Martin (9 February 2013). "Mike Lynch raises $1bn for technology investment". The Daily Telegraph.
  22. "British tech entrepreneur Lynch invests in cybersecurity firm backed by ex-MI5 boss". The Daily Telegraph. 17 September 2013. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  23. "After Autonomy". The Economist. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  24. "Darktrace | Investors". darktrace.com. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
  25. "Darktrace targets £3.8bn valuation as it picks banks for London float". Sky News. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  26. Your Name Here. "News Archive - Cambridge Enterprise". Cambridge Enterprise. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  27. Members appointed to Council for Science & Technology 10 Downing Street
  28. "Foundation for Science and Technology". www.foundation.org.uk. Archived from the original on 11 October 2013.
  29. "Enterprise Hub - Mentors". Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  30. "Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew". Archived from the original on 6 January 2014.
  31. Meet the team Cancer Research UK
  32. "Shareholder Information". Blinkx. Archived from the original on 23 September 2014. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  33. "Mike Lynch". British Library. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  34. "Mike Lynch". NESTA. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  35. Institute of Engineering Recipients of the Achievement Awards Archived 12 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  36. "Mike Lynch - Autonomy" Time Europe
  37. MBE for Soham murders detective BBC News, 31 December 2005
  38. "Royal Academy of Engineering" (PDF).
  39. "silicon.com is for sale | www.oxley.com". www.oxley.com.
  40. "Deputy Lieutenants of the County of Suffolk". Archived from the original on 30 March 2014.
  41. "Dicom snaps up Neurascript". Financial Times. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  42. The Thoughts of Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch PC Advisor
  43. James Ashton "Autonomy is at the heart of a new data revolution" Sunday Times, 1 February 2009
  44. Profile: Mike Lynch, Autonomy founder The Telegraph, 16 October 2011
  45. Mike Lynch sells his Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard Archived 26 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine Real Business
  46. "Larry Ellison of Oracle Calls Autonomy CEO Lying Liar". Gizmodo. 30 September 2011. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  47. "Quattrone blasts Ellison, says Autonomy is right". The Register. 30 September 2011. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  48. "Open letter from Mike Lynch to the shareholders of Hewlett-Packard". Open Letter. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  49. "HP takes $8.8bn hit over Autonomy". Financial Times. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  50. "Mike Lynch, Autonomy's Founder, Says He's Baffled by H.P.'s Claims - NYTimes.com". Retrieved 26 November 2012.
  51. "HP/Autonomy investigation: Tangled web of hardware and resellers". Financial Times. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  52. "Autonomy HP sale investigation by Serious Fraud Office closes". BBC. 19 January 2015. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
  53. "Ex-Autonomy CEO Michael Lynch Indicted for Fraud Tied to 2011 HP Deal". Bloomberg. 29 November 2018. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  54. "UK Proceedings | Autonomy Accounts". autonomyaccounts.org.
  55. Corfield, Gareth. "Autonomy founder Mike Lynch's US extradition hearing will be in February 2021". www.theregister.com.
  56. Browning, Jonathan. "A Long Legal War Over a $10 Billion Takeover Heads to a Close". Bloomberg.
  57. "UK tech giant founder arrested over US extradition". BBC. 5 February 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  58. Kollewe, Julia (5 February 2020). "Autonomy founder Mike Lynch submits himself for arrest". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  59. "Autonomy founder mike lynch arrested in US extradition fight". Bloomberg.
  60. Biography AutonomyAccounts.org
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