David Tabizel, the friend and business partner of technology entrepreneur Mike Lynch has described him as a “hero” and a “freedom fighter”
Asked about Lynch’s presumed demise Mr Tabizel said he was hoping for a miracle and added that he was probably the most resilient human being he'd ever met.
In an exclusive interview, Tabizel told Michelle Dewberry on GB News: “Mike is a very human man. He's probably the most resilient human being I've ever met in my life. I've never heard him tell a lie.
“I think he has an incisive personality. If anyone could still exist in these terrible physical circumstances, if there is an air pocket, he'd have found it. So let's just keep our fingers crossed. First of all, I don't want to talk about him in the past tense.
“He's one of the rarest beasts you'll ever find. He is a great scientist. He's a teacher. He's a good communicator. He's a businessman, and unlike most entrepreneurs, he can get the big idea right, but also manage everything.
“He has an intense, focused energy, and I think, a real sense of equity. He's up there among three or four entrepreneurs of our generation, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, I wouldn't put Elon Musk in that category, who can do everything and he can.
“It's been an honour to work with him and know him for the last 30 years. The last time I spoke to him, we were swapping messages earlier on, well last week, talking about meeting up at his place in Suffolk, talking about hearing aids, we both suffered some hearing loss, and he was talking about maybe using AI to look at ways of accelerating the effectiveness of these devices.
“And the important thing here is that Autonomy was probably the first big artificial intelligence company on the planet, let alone in Britain.”
Asked about the US fraud trial revolving around the sale of Autonomy, he said: “It's terrible. Mike Lynch was a billionaire. He's a billionaire with the most extraordinary intellect and with the most extraordinary resilience. He dug down, and undoubtedly he would have been in prison if it weren't for his wealth, his intelligence, his commitment.
“But who wants to lose 10 or 12 years of your life doing that? But he did that, and I think that is a lesson that we have to learn now on both sides of the Atlantic, when business gets into government and owns the law, we're all of us vulnerable, all of us.”
He added: “He's exceptional because there is no intellectual weakness to the man. His character is strong. His focus is laser-like. But right now, we have to have our economic sovereignty back. We should be encouraging and celebrating our entrepreneurs. That is what's going to drag us out of our current malaise.
“If we don't, we're just going to become a third world country. We have to show people that the way to get out of this economic malaise is by digging in, by being ambitious, by being positive, by understanding how to create capital, and by basically making sure that our governments understand this and don't throw a brain drain right in our faces, which could basically lead the country into decades of near poverty.
“Listen, this is a wonderful country full of the most exciting innovation, we have to build a consensus that creates wealth and Mike Lynch is probably Britain's greatest businessman of the last 35 years.
“My prayers are with the family and I just hope there's a miracle coming. And if anyone can pull it off, it'll be Mike Lynch.”
He added: “If there's any chance of him surviving this - he has the strength, the strength to do this, and I hope that we aren't talking in the past tense. He is a remarkable man.
“And if you've had the blessing and the honour to have worked with him or known him, he's a force of nature, and somebody who I think will become a business and intellectual and scientific legend in the decades to come.”
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