On board the doomed Bayesian At the side of the superyacht that took Mike Lynch’s life stood not only his family and friends, but also important business people who embodied the most important phases of his career.
Successful former employees of his technology group Autonomy, allies who had pushed through the multi-billion dollar sale to HP and the legal minds who defended him after the deal fell through were all present when the Mediterranean Sea was hit by storms on Monday morning.
Lynch was pronounced dead on Thursday after the yacht he was on with 21 other passengers sank off the coast of Sicily.
He celebrated his recent acquittal of fraud charges related to HP’s $11.7 billion acquisition of Lynch’s technology company Autonomy in 2011.
Lynch was joined by his wife, Angela Bacares, who survived, and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah Lynch, whose body was recovered Friday morning.
Among the other passengers were key allies who had supported Lynch during the technology mogul’s most turbulent times.
The escape was a symbolic journey to what Lynch had described as the beginning of a “second life.”
The Accidental Car Accident – Steven Chamberlain
Rumors are now circulating about a connection between the boat’s guests and the accidental death of Steven Chamberlain in a collision with a driver in Cambridgeshire, just days before the boat sank.
Chamberlain was a veteran at Autonomy and later became chief operating officer at Darktrace, a company closely linked to Autonomy, and took “leave of absence” to defend himself during Lynch’s recent trial in the United States.
Former Autonomy NED – Jonathan Bloomer
The bodies of 70-year-old Jonathan Bloomer and his wife (Judy Bloomer) were recovered along with Lynch’s on Wednesday.
Autonomy appointed Bloomer as a non-executive director in 2010. He chaired the group’s audit committee during the HP sale and was a key witness for Lynch’s defense during his fraud trial in California. At the time of his death, Bloomer was international chairman of Morgan Stanley International.
Bloomer told prosecutors that Lynch was “not particularly interested in the financial side” of Autonomy and preferred to focus on the company’s strategy and products.
Lynch’s lawyers – Chris Morvillo & Ayla Ronald
Chris Morvillo, 59, died on board the Bayesian Yacht with his wife, American jewelry designer Neda Morvillo, 57.
Morvillo, an attorney with the Magic Circle law firm Clifford Chance, represented Lynch in his criminal trial in the United States
He told the legal podcast For the defense He said the case had “covered a third of my career” after he first met with Lynch in 2012 as unrest at HP was mounting.
In a rare LinkedIn post after the trial, which would also be one of his last, Morvillo thanked his daughters and his late wife, Neda.
“I am so happy to be home,” Morvillo wrote.
“And they all lived happily everafter….”
Ayla Ronald, a 36-year-old senior associate at Clifford Chance, was also on board the Bayesian with her partner Matthew Fletcher. Both survived the sinking.
Ronald’s company profile details how she also defended Lynch in his fraud trial against HP.
Extensive links to Darktrace
Chris J. Ratcliffe—Bloomberg/Getty Images (2)
After selling Autonomy, for which he reportedly received £500 million ($656 million), Lynch founded the venture capital fund Invoke Capital in 2012, which he used to expand his influence widely into the British tech scene in his final years.
Invoke was an early-stage investor in Darktrace, which is now being acquired by US private equity firm Thoma Bravo for $5.3 billion. The VC fund also invested in UK AI company Luminance, which closed a $40 million funding round in April.
Lynch and his wife Angela held hundreds of millions of their net worth through Darktrace in their final years, with one source telling Assets At the time of their deaths, they together owned a 7% stake in the company, which was valued at £4 billion ($5.25 billion). Assets exclusively announced that the deal is expected to close sometime in 2024.
Several former high-flyers from Lynch’s Autonomy days rose to key positions at Darktrace. Poppy Gustafsson, Darktrace’s current CEO, was Corporate Controller at Autonomy. In a LinkedIn post commemorating the lives lost, Gustafsson said, “Without Mike, there would be no Darktrace. We owe him so much.”
The ties seem to run deep – Nicole Eagan, Darktrace’s founder and CEO, was also Chief Marketing Officer at Autonomy during the HP acquisition phase. Neither Eagan nor Gustafsson were there then and still hold leadership positions at Darktrace today.
Invoke Capital – Charlotte Golunski
Charlotte Golunski is another person with a long-standing relationship with Lynch. She is a partner at Invoke Capital and joined the firm when it was founded in 2012. Invoke Capital shared offices with Darktrace near London’s Trafalgar Square for several years.
Prior to joining Invoke, Golunski spent a year working for Lynch at Autonomy and HP Autonomy following their acquisition.
Golunski, 35, survived the sinking of the Bayesian with her partner James Emsley and their one-year-old daughter. She had been sleeping on the deck of the yacht with her baby when the storm hit. She described feeling vibrations in the boat before it sank minutes later.
She told the Italian broadcaster La Republic how she held her baby in her arms in the water before she was rescued.
