Mike Lynch was bright, warm, generous and formidably intelligent, say his Suffolk friends. Former Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk Lord Tollemache and former Suffolk Coastal MP Lord Deben have paid tribute to the tech entrepreneur - seen as one of the brightest IT talents of his generation before his u ntimely death off the coast of Sicily at the age of 59 . They - and others - remained steadfastly loyal to the tech entrepreneur - even after he was accused by Hewlett-Packard.
The American tech giant called foul after acquiring his Cambridge-based software company, Autonomy, for a record sum. Dr Lynch's friends saw his extradition to the US to face fraud charges as a travesty and continued to support him during his 13-month legal ordeal culminating in a jury trial in San Francisco which ended in June with his acquittal on all charges. Lord Tollemache - who served as Lord Lieutenant from 2003 to 2014 - appointed Dr Lynch as one of his deputies in the 2010s.
"I very much wanted to try and persuade those very rich people who had now found homes in Suffolk to help the less fortunate people who live in our county with their wealth and be generous supporters of that," he explained. "Mike Lynch definitely was one of those who I approached and he agreed he would very much like to help. "He was indeed very generous because he loved Suffolk as we know and lived in Suffolk near Pettistree with a beautiful house and land with his lovely animals and was very happy there with his wife Angela and .