Michael Richard Lynch

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Michael Richard Lynch was born in Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary, Republic of Ireland in 1965.

He is considered to be the first British-based Internet billionaire, although after the dot com downturn by 2005 his personal wealth was estimated at £154 million. He is the co-founder and CEO of Autonomy Systems and his entrepreneurship is associated with Silicon Fen. He has recently spearheaded the meaning-based computing movement.

He was educated at Bancroft's School, Woodford, Essex between 1976 and 1983. Dr. Lynch received his PhD in Signal Processing and Communications Research from Cambridge University, where he was a student at Christ's College, and also took a research fellowship in adaptive pattern recognition.

In 1991, based on this research, he set up his first company, Neurodynamics, which specialized in neural network computing , as well as automatic number-plate, fingerprint and face recognition software.

In 1996, Dr. Lynch co-founded the company he is most associated with, Autonomy, which specializes in providing knowledge management and enterprise search solutions, again based on his Bayesian research.

He has also founded four other companies, and was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 1999 by the Confederation of British Industry and was awarded the Institution of Electrical Engineers medal for outstanding achievement.

Dr. Lynch was awarded an honorary OBE in the 2006 New Years Honours and is an honorary fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge.

In December 2006 he was appointed as a non executive director serving on the executive board of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).