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. 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. His Cambridge doctoral thesis is reported as one of the most widely read pieces of research at the Cambridge University library.[3] 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.[4]
He was born in Carrick-on-Suir, 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. [5]
Aged 11, in 1976 he won a scholarship to Bancroft's School, Woodford.[6] From there he went to Christ's College, Cambridge to study natural sciences. Unlike most students, he combined mathematics, biological and physical sciences, taking the rare 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.[7]
In the late 1980s Lynch formed Lynett Systems Ltd, producing designs and audio products for the music recording industry.[8]
In 1991, he set up Neurodynamics, which specialized in neural network computing, as well as automatic number-plate, fingerprint and face recognition software. Then in 1996, Lynch co-founded Autonomy Corporation, the company he is most associated with.[9]
Sir Ronald Cohen, founder of Apax, called Lynch his favourite entrepreneur in an interview in 2007.[10] This may not be surprising as APAX claims to have made a £150m on its £1.8m investment.[11] According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2011 he is worth around £400m.[12]
Shortly after the dot com crash he upset some in the city and won praise from others in an infamous incident. Merrill Lynch sent an email to Autonomy's shareholders claiming Autonomy’ scientists had left the company.[13] 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. This was considered bad form by those involved as in those days it was unusual for such practices to be called out by a CEO. [14]
In later interviews Lynch claimed he had no choice as customers would have left if they believed the story. In the subsequent week, he received a rough ride in the papers as the bank’s PR people tried to deflect the issue. Eventually the bank apologized for the false story.[15] Lynch was for a while considered difficult by some, but praised by many others including the shareholders and analysts for standing up for the company.[16]
Over the years, his relationship with the city has become good, and with the acquisitions of Verity, Zantaz and Interwoven, he was able to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from city fund managers.[17] He has also twice been a finalist for Investor Relations award of the year[18] and by 2009 was voted one of the top 25 best CEOs pan sector in Europe by fund managers in the annual Extel surrey.[19]
In December 2006, he was appointed as a non-executive director serving on the executive board of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation).[7]
He is a trustee of NESTA the National endowment for science technology and the arts, and he is chairman of their investment committee.[20]
He is on the advisory board of the venture capital firm Apax partners.
He was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 1999 by the Confederation of British Industry and was awarded the Institution of Electrical Engineers medal for outstanding achievement.[21]
Time magazine named Lynch in their 25 most influential technology people in Europe in 2000.[22]
The World Economic Forum presented Lynch with an award for Autonomy as a technology pioneer in 2000.[23] Lynch was awarded an OBE in the 2006 New Years Honours.[24]
He is an honorary fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge.[25]
In 2007, he was awarded Technology Entrepreneur of the year by the European Technology Forum at their 2007 conference.[26]
In March 2008, he beat finalists CEOs Henning Kagermann of SAP and Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo of Nokia to be chosen Innovator of the year at the European Business Leader of the year awards 'EBLA' and CNBC made a half hour documentary on his work.[27] In June 2008, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.[28]
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.[29] In January 2009, Management Today chose him as entrepreneur of the year.[28]
- ^ Channel 4 News "Lynch on Gates: one man's verdict" 27 June 2008
- ^ James Ashton "Autonomy is at the heart of a new data revolution" Sunday Times, 1 February 2009
- ^ A day in the life of Mike Lynch, chief executive of Autonomy Corporation
- ^ It may seem confusing but Autonomy can help The Times, 11 May 2009
- ^ a b Business big shot: Mike Lynch of Autonomy The Times, 8 July 2008
- ^ OBA President's Report - 2009
- ^ a b BBC Press Office
- ^ Wikipatents
- ^ The Kindness of Strangers VNU Net
- ^ Mike Foster "Buyout king Cohen tackles poverty trap Private Equity News, 21 January 2008
- ^ Profile: Sir Ronald Cohen: Midas with a mission The Times, 23 January 2005
- ^ Sunday Times Rich List: Tech people on the up Tech Digest, 27 April 2009
- ^ What price Autonomy? IT Analysis, 13 February 2002
- ^ Merrill forced to pull Autonomy note Independent, 8 February 2001
- ^ Autonomy hammered after traders note
- ^ The Lynch effect has Autonomy bubbling up The Telegraph, 6 January 2008
- ^ Autonomy to buy Zantaz for $375m, place shares Reuters, 3 July 2007
- ^ Barclays, Cookson and Detica Grand Prix Winners at IR Magazine Awards PR Newswire, 29 June 2009
- ^ Extel Survey: European Investor Relations 2009
- ^ NESTA Board Members
- ^ Institute of Engineering Recipients of the Achievement Awards
- ^ "Mike Lynch - Autonomy" Time Europe
- ^ Autonomy Wins Global Technology Award At World Economic Forum
- ^ MBE for Soham murders detective BBC News, 31 December 2005
- ^ Christ's College, Cambridge
- ^ Innovation & Growth Forum
- ^ European Business Leaders Awards website
- ^ a b Royal Academy of Engineeering
- ^ www.silicon.com "Agenda Setters 2008"
- ^ Financial Times digital business section, June 2008
- Autonomy company website
- Neurodynamics company website
- "Good Listener". Director magazine. May 2011. http://www.director.co.uk/MAGAZINE/2011/5_May/mike-lynch_64_09.html.
- "Britain's first software billionaire". salon.com. July 2000. http://www.salon.com/tech/view/2000/07/10/autonomy. (interview)
- "The Quest for Meaning". Wired. February 2000. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.02/autonomy_pr.html.
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