For years, the name of Mike Lynch was synonymous with allegations of corporate fraud on a massive scale, accusations of which he was finally acquitted just two months ago . After this week, his name will be forever tied to his tragic demise following a freak yachting accident at sea, less than a day after his colleague and co-defendant in the aforementioned legal action, 52-year-old Stephen Chamberlain, also died, bizarrely , after being hit by a car while out running near Cambridge. The conspiracy theorists’ tongues may wag in the wake of that double-calamity, and yet what else can it be seen as other than a horrific coincidence? Lynch (59) was renowned as one of the world’s foremost tech entrepreneurs — Europe’s answer to Microsoft’s Bill Gates, and a true British rarity — a successful self-made tech millionaire.
He was born in Ilford, London, in 1965 (some reports suggest he was actually born in Tipperary, where he had strong family connections), the son of immigrant parents — his mother a native of Carrick-On-Suir, his father a firefighter from Cork. Throughout his life he was well-known for his interest in Carrick, having holidayed there repeatedly in his youth, and for helping it quietly on its way in terms of attracting foreign investment. Lynch’s prowess as a student was evident from an early age, winning a scholarship to Bancroft’s School as a teen before entering Cambridge University, from where he emerged in the early ’90s with a PhD in signal p.