Who is Mike Lynch and What Happened in Sicily? Get Details Here

Michael Richard Lynch is a prominent British-Irish entrepreneur known for founding several innovative technology companies. Best known as the co-founder of Autonomy Corporation, Lynch also led the formation of Invoke Capital and, through Invoke, played a major role in the creation of cybersecurity pioneer Darktrace. Lynch has held a number of leadership roles throughout his career, providing his expertise to a variety of organizations in a consultancy capacity.

However, Lynch, who is often called the European version of Bill Gates for his technological vision, recently went missing under horrific circumstances. The entrepreneur was one of 22 passengers on the luxurious Bayesian superyacht, including two Americans and a Canadian, when the yacht sank near the treacherous coast of Sicily amid unexpectedly fierce waves. The storm quickly enveloped their vessel, and any hope of rescue was dashed, leaving them facing a perilous situation.

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Who is Mike Lynch?

In the mid-1990s, Mike Lynch co-founded Autonomy, a pioneering software company in the UK technology community. In 2006, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to business. In 2011, he was appointed to the Science and Technology Council by then Prime Minister David Cameron. Lynch was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2008 and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2014.

However, his career has faced significant challenges as he has been accused of inflating sales, misleading regulators and defrauding HP, which bought Autonomy for $11.1 billion in 2011. Lynch was first charged in 2018 and faced 15 counts of fraud in a trial in the United States, but was acquitted in June this year.

Lynch was born on June 16, 1965 in Ireland and grew up near Chelmsford, Essex. His mother, a nurse in County Tipperary, and his father, a firefighter in County Cork, Ireland, were influential in his early life. At the age of 11, Lynch won a scholarship to Woodford Bancroft School. He later attended Christ’s College, Cambridge, to study natural sciences, before undertaking a PhD in artificial neural networks under the guidance of Peter Rayner, Director of Engineering Studies at Christ’s College. His thesis was titled “Adaptive Techniques in Signal Processing and Connectionist Models”. Lynch also completed a research fellowship in adaptive pattern recognition.

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What happened in Sicily?

Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah were among the six people missing when the 56m (184ft) Perini Navi built superyacht Bayesian sank off the coast of Sicily on 19 August 2024. His wife Angela Bacares was confirmed to be one of the fifteen people rescued following the accident, while the body of a crew member has been recovered. The yacht was chartered by Revtom Limited, a company registered in the Isle of Man and said to be owned by the Bacares.

According to witnesses, the yacht, which was carrying 22 people, was hit by a severe storm in the early hours of August 19, 2024. The storm caused the yacht’s mast to break in half, causing the vessel to lose balance. The yacht was anchored near the coast near the port of Porticello when it was hit by a waterspout, according to the Sicilian daily.

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