Many of those who worked at Autonomy for Lynch in the late 2000s – such as Sushovan Hussain, Andrew Kanter and Nicole Eagan went on to take up senior roles at his later firms, such as Darktrace or Invoke Capital. Poppy Gustafsson, who joined Autonomy as a relatively junior accountant in 2009, later rose to become chief executive of Darktrace, a FTSE 100 business now valued at £4bn. Lynch was the founding investor in Darktrace and closely involved in its early development.
At times Lynch’s loyal followers raised eyebrows and attracted suspicion. In a 2022 judgement finding he had defrauded HP, a High Court judge described some of his closest Autonomy colleagues as a “cabal”, formed of “lieutenants [who] would not have done anything of which they thought he might disapprove”. Lynch had reportedly planned to appeal the ruling.
HP sought to prove he had ruled with a culture of “distrust and paranoia”, while the US government insisted he was the “driving force” behind a “massive fraud” and a “controlling, dominating, intimidating boss”.
In one colourful email revealed in the civil case, Lynch wrote to a sales representative threatening to “squeeze down the telephone line” to tell him “directly how the f— I feel about this”. Indeed, Lynch appeared to revel in this reputation as a ruthless leader – albeit with his tongue firmly in cheek – naming rooms at his headquarters after James Bond villains and keeping a tank of piranhas in the office.
Yet friends of Lynch argue the loyalty of his business associates was genuine, and while the entrepreneur may have been a demanding boss, he was generous both at work and in his personal life. They say it was typical of the man that he would invite lawyers and staff who had supported him during his trial on to his yacht to celebrate with his family.
Holway said Lynch was an enthusiastic backer of the Prince’s Trust technology group, and that “every time you asked Mike to do something” for the charity he would assist. He said Lynch was “one of those people who inspired huge loyalty” among his co-workers.
Holway, who criticised the decision to extradite him to the US in a series of blog posts for Tech Market View, said the entrepreneur “always messaged to thank me every time I posted my views”. He added: “My very last message from Mike was to arrange for us to have lunch at Wiltons next month to celebrate his acquittal in the US.”
Executives in Britain’s tech sector who knew Lynch also pointed to him as a towering figure who helped elevate the industry, building multiple successful companies despite the legal campaign against him.
“Mike is a rare figure in British tech. He cared deeply about the UK tech scene and encouraged many founders to follow in his footsteps. It’s so sad that tragedy struck so soon after he had cleared his name in the US,” said Brent Hoberman, the founder of Lastminute.com, who knew Lynch for many years.
Davis noted the bitter irony that the disaster struck aboard a yacht called the Bayesian – named for the statistical theory Lynch mastered as part of his PhD at Cambridge in the 1980s – a precursor to modern AI technologies. “The name of his yacht – Bayesian – is all about conditional probability,” he said. “The probability of these three events is so improbable, it is hard to calculate.”
Less so the acute sense of loss felt this week. In a LinkedIn post soon after Lynch’s acquittal, Morvillo paid tribute to his client, his team and also his family: “None of this would have been possible without your love and support. I am so glad to be home.”
The post ended with the words: “And they all lived happily ever after….”