Michael Richard Lynch
Encyclopedia
Dr Michael Richard Lynch OBE
, FREng is the co-founder and Chief Executive of Autonomy Corporation
. His entrepreneurship is associated with Silicon Fen
. He is a leader in the area of computer understanding of unstructured information, an area which is becoming known as meaning-based computing. In October 2011, Autonomy was sold to Hewlett Packard for $11bn, making Lynch a dollar billionaire.
, County Tipperary
, Ireland, in 1965, but his family moved to England, where he 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 Dr 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 from Cambridge University
, and then undertook a research fellowship in adaptive pattern recognition.
In 1991, he set up Cambridge Neurodynamics, which specialized in computer based finger print recognition. Then in 1996, Lynch co-founded Autonomy Corporation
.
Described by the Financial Times
as "the doyen of European software" and generally considered one of Britain's most successful technology entrepreneurs. Lynch was profiled by the Sunday Times with a comparison as the nearest thing Britain has to Bill Gates
He is perhaps best known as the co-founder and CEO of Autonomy Corporation
, a company he grew from a start up to be the UK's largest software company. He is considered a rare example of a European academic turned technology entrepreneur who has taken a start up through to being a global leader. In October 2011 Autonomy was sold to Hewlett Packard for $11Bn, making it the largest ever European software tranaction and the second largest in history.
Sir Ronald Cohen, founder of Apax which turned a 1.7million investment in Lynch's company into a 1 Billion return, called Lynch his favourite entrepreneur in an interview in 2007. According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2011, he was worth around £400m before asking $800m from the sale of Autonomy to Hewlett Packard.
Merrill Lynch sent an email to Autonomy's shareholders claiming Autonomy’ scientists had left the company. The story was untrue but the stock fell sharply. Lynch was sent the email by a newspaper and went into print calling the email untrue. Eventually the bank apologized for the false story.
With the acquisitions of Verity, Zantaz and Interwoven, Lynch was able to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from city fund managers. He has twice been a finalist for Investor Relations award of the year and by 2009, was voted one of the top 25 best CEOs pan sector in Europe by fund managers in the annual Extel surrey.
In September 2011, Lynch got into a spat with Oracle's CEO Larry Ellison, after Lynch had commented that some answers given by Oracle on the ability of databases to handle unstructured information were in his view incorrect. In response Oracle claimed Autonomy had been shopped to them at a meeting in April 2011. Lynch denied this and Oracle posted a powerpoint they said had been presented by him at the April meeting. However it turned out the powerpoint was not Lynch's and dated from a meeting between Oracle and a third party in January 2011. Newspapers questioned what Oracle was upto and saw it as part of a campaign against HP.
.
He is a trustee of NESTA the National endowment for science technology and the arts, and he is chairman of their investment committee.
He is a non executive director of Blinkx plc and a government advisor in the area of science policy.
and was awarded the Institution of Electrical Engineers
medal for outstanding achievement.
Time
magazine named Lynch in their 25 most influential technology people in Europe in 2000.
The World Economic Forum presented Lynch with an award for Autonomy as a technology pioneer in 2000. Lynch was awarded an OBE
in the 2006 New Years Honours.
He is an honorary fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge
.
In 2007, he was awarded Technology Entrepreneur of the year by the European Technology Forum at their 2007 conference.
In March 2008, he was chosen Innovator of the year at the European Business Leader of the year awards 'EBLA'. In June 2008, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
.
In October 2008, Silicon.com readers voted him one of the top five most influential people in technology along with Tim Berners-Lee
, Steve Jobs
, Jimmy Wales
and Eric Schmidt. In January 2009, Management Today chose him as entrepreneur of the year.
The Financial Times
has described Lynch as "the doyen of European software"
.
PC Advisor has called him "Britain's most successful technology entrepreneur"
The Daily Telegraph has called him "Britain's Bill Gates".
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, FREng is the co-founder and Chief Executive of Autonomy Corporation
Autonomy Corporation
Autonomy is a multinational enterprise software company with joint headquarters in Cambridge, United Kingdom, and San Francisco, USA and a subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard. The company uses a combination of technologies born out of research at the University of Cambridge...
. His entrepreneurship is associated with Silicon Fen
Silicon Fen
Silicon Fen is the name given to the region around Cambridge, England, which is home to a large cluster of high-tech businesses focusing on software, electronics, and biotechnology...
. He is a leader in the area of computer understanding of unstructured information, an area which is becoming known as meaning-based computing. In October 2011, Autonomy was sold to Hewlett Packard for $11bn, making Lynch a dollar billionaire.
Early life
He was born in Carrick-on-SuirCarrick-on-Suir
Carrick-on-Suir is a town in South Tipperary in Ireland. As the name – meaning "the rock of the Suir" – suggests, the town is situated on the River Suir. The of the town gives the population as 5,906 and shows that it has grown by 5.7% since 2002...
, County Tipperary
County Tipperary
County Tipperary is a county of Ireland. It is located in the province of Munster and is named after the town of Tipperary. The area of the county does not have a single local authority; local government is split between two authorities. In North Tipperary, part of the Mid-West Region, local...
, Ireland, in 1965, but his family moved to England, where he 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
Bancroft's School
Bancroft's School is a co-educational independent school in Woodford Green, London. The school has around 1,000 pupils aged between 7 and 18...
, Woodford. From there he went to Christ's College, Cambridge
Christ's College, Cambridge
Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.With a reputation for high academic standards, Christ's College averaged top place in the Tompkins Table from 1980-2000 . In 2011, Christ's was placed sixth.-College history:...
to study natural sciences. He combined mathematics, biological and physical sciences, taking the combination of advanced physics, mathematics and biochemistry in the IB Tripos
Tripos
The University of Cambridge, England, divides the different kinds of honours bachelor's degree by Tripos , plural Triposes. The word has an obscure etymology, but may be traced to the three-legged stool candidates once used to sit on when taking oral examinations...
. For part II, he chose electrical sciences where he first met Dr 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
Signal processing
Signal processing is an area of systems engineering, electrical engineering and applied mathematics that deals with operations on or analysis of signals, in either discrete or continuous time...
and communications research from Cambridge University
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, and then undertook a research fellowship in adaptive pattern recognition.
Entrepreneurial career
In the late 1980s, Lynch formed Lynett Systems Ltd, producing designs and audio products for the music recording industry.In 1991, he set up Cambridge Neurodynamics, which specialized in computer based finger print recognition. Then in 1996, Lynch co-founded Autonomy Corporation
Autonomy Corporation
Autonomy is a multinational enterprise software company with joint headquarters in Cambridge, United Kingdom, and San Francisco, USA and a subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard. The company uses a combination of technologies born out of research at the University of Cambridge...
.
Described by the Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
as "the doyen of European software" and generally considered one of Britain's most successful technology entrepreneurs. Lynch was profiled by the Sunday Times with a comparison as the nearest thing Britain has to Bill Gates
Bill Gates
William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...
He is perhaps best known as the co-founder and CEO of Autonomy Corporation
Autonomy Corporation
Autonomy is a multinational enterprise software company with joint headquarters in Cambridge, United Kingdom, and San Francisco, USA and a subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard. The company uses a combination of technologies born out of research at the University of Cambridge...
, a company he grew from a start up to be the UK's largest software company. He is considered a rare example of a European academic turned technology entrepreneur who has taken a start up through to being a global leader. In October 2011 Autonomy was sold to Hewlett Packard for $11Bn, making it the largest ever European software tranaction and the second largest in history.
Sir Ronald Cohen, founder of Apax which turned a 1.7million investment in Lynch's company into a 1 Billion return, called Lynch his favourite entrepreneur in an interview in 2007. According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2011, he was worth around £400m before asking $800m from the sale of Autonomy to Hewlett Packard.
Merrill Lynch sent an email to Autonomy's shareholders claiming Autonomy’ scientists had left the company. The story was untrue but the stock fell sharply. Lynch was sent the email by a newspaper and went into print calling the email untrue. Eventually the bank apologized for the false story.
With the acquisitions of Verity, Zantaz and Interwoven, Lynch was able to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from city fund managers. He has twice been a finalist for Investor Relations award of the year and by 2009, was voted one of the top 25 best CEOs pan sector in Europe by fund managers in the annual Extel surrey.
In September 2011, Lynch got into a spat with Oracle's CEO Larry Ellison, after Lynch had commented that some answers given by Oracle on the ability of databases to handle unstructured information were in his view incorrect. In response Oracle claimed Autonomy had been shopped to them at a meeting in April 2011. Lynch denied this and Oracle posted a powerpoint they said had been presented by him at the April meeting. However it turned out the powerpoint was not Lynch's and dated from a meeting between Oracle and a third party in January 2011. Newspapers questioned what Oracle was upto and saw it as part of a campaign against HP.
Other Interests
In December 2006, he was appointed as a non-executive director to the board of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
.
He is a trustee of NESTA the National endowment for science technology and the arts, and he is chairman of their investment committee.
He is a non executive director of Blinkx plc and a government advisor in the area of science policy.
Awards and media coverage
He was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 1999 by the Confederation of British IndustryConfederation of British Industry
The Confederation of British Industry is a British not for profit organisation incorporated by Royal charter which promotes the interests of its members, some 200,000 British businesses, a figure which includes some 80% of FTSE 100 companies and around 50% of FTSE 350 companies.-Role:The CBI works...
and was awarded the Institution of Electrical Engineers
Institution of Electrical Engineers
The Institution of Electrical Engineers was a British professional organisation of electronics, electrical, manufacturing, and Information Technology professionals, especially electrical engineers. The I.E.E...
medal for outstanding achievement.
Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine named Lynch in their 25 most influential technology people in Europe in 2000.
The World Economic Forum presented Lynch with an award for Autonomy as a technology pioneer in 2000. Lynch was awarded an OBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in the 2006 New Years Honours.
He is an honorary fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge
Christ's College, Cambridge
Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.With a reputation for high academic standards, Christ's College averaged top place in the Tompkins Table from 1980-2000 . In 2011, Christ's was placed sixth.-College history:...
.
In 2007, he was awarded Technology Entrepreneur of the year by the European Technology Forum at their 2007 conference.
In March 2008, he was chosen Innovator of the year at the European Business Leader of the year awards 'EBLA'. In June 2008, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
Royal Academy of Engineering
-Overview: is the UK’s national academy of engineering. The Academy brings together the most successful and talented engineers from across the engineering sectors for a shared purpose: to advance and promote excellence in engineering....
.
In October 2008, Silicon.com readers voted him one of the top five most influential people in technology along with Tim Berners-Lee
Tim Berners-Lee
Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee, , also known as "TimBL", is a British computer scientist, MIT professor and the inventor of the World Wide Web...
, Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
, Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company....
and Eric Schmidt. In January 2009, Management Today chose him as entrepreneur of the year.
The Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
has described Lynch as "the doyen of European software"
.
PC Advisor has called him "Britain's most successful technology entrepreneur"
The Daily Telegraph has called him "Britain's Bill Gates".