Lord-Lieutenant of Suffolk pays tribute to ‘kind, compassionate and inspirational’ entrepreneur Mike Lynch

The Lord-Lieutenant of Suffolk has paid tribute to ‘kind, compassionate and inspirational’ entrepreneur Mike Lynch who died after a luxury yacht sank during a storm off the coast of Sicily.

Clare, Countess of Euston, released a tribute to Mr Lynch, a technology tycoon, who was Deputy Lieutenant of Suffolk.

Mr Lynch, his daughter Hannah, Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy Bloomer, Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo were lost when the Bayesian yacht was hit by a storm and sank at around 5am on Monday.

The Countess of Euston said: “I join with so many others in mourning the shocking loss of Mike Lynch and all those who tragically lost their lives in Sicily this week. Mike was one of Suffolk’s most inspirational citizens.

“He was quite simply a genius, a global leader in his field but so much more than that. A kind and compassionate man who was always ready to help, hugely generous, the best of friends, but it will be his warm and wonderful smile that will be impossible for me to forget.

“Mike was an exemplary Deputy Lieutenant of Suffolk serving both our late Queen Elizabeth II and our present King Charles III.

“Our heartfelt sympathy and condolences are with Angela and his whole family at this terrible time.”

Mr Lynch founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, and made his name as one of Britain’s most influential entrepreneurs.

In June, the 59-year-old was cleared of conducting a massive fraud relating to an 11 billion dollar (£8.64 billion) sale to US company Hewlett Packard.

The boat trip was a celebration of his acquittal.

Of the 22 passengers and crew on board, 15 – including Mr Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares – were rescued after escaping onto a lifeboat.

Mr Lynch was born in Ilford, east London, brought up in Essex and was the son of a nurse from Co Tipperary and a fireman from Co Cork who enjoyed childhood summers in Carrick-On-Shannon and Tipperary where he had family.

He went to Cambridge University and started his first business while studying for a PhD in signal processing and communications research.

He was made an OBE for services to enterprise in 2006. That same year, he was appointed to the board of the BBC, and was later elected to then-prime minister David Cameron’s council for science and technology in 2011.

Mr Lynch was a member of the Create The Change fund-raising board, set up by Cancer Research UK, which helped fund the building of the Francis Crick Institute.

Chairman Lord John Browne, who described him as ‘a human being of great ability’, said: “Mike Lynch should be remembered as the person who catalysed a breed of deep tech entrepreneurs in the UK.

“His ideas and his personal vision were a powerful contribution to science and technology in both Britain and globally.”

He became a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2008, which paid tribute for his ‘active role’ as a ‘mentor, donor and former council member’. He was an inaugural member of the enterprise committee.

The technology industry group TechUK also described him as ‘a hugely significant and pioneering figure in the UK technology sector’.