Age: 35
Nationality: British
www.autonomy.com

Lynch made Autonomy one of Europe's most successful software companies by resurrecting the mathematical musings of Thomas Bayes, an eccentric 18th century English clergyman who attempted to prove God's existence (or maybe just win at cards) through mathematics.

Lynch figured out how to use Bayes' Theorem to plow through text in search of concepts instead of just keywords.

Lynch's software identifies concepts, tags them and then automatically sets up hyperlinks with related information on the Web. Lynch formed Autonomy's parent company in 1996, with money from a pop music promoter.

About 50% of Autonomy's revenues come from the United States, and Lynch anticipates even more growth as Autonomy software is adopted by commercial websites.

The vision thing: "The days of running an Internet business on hope and pizza are gone. You have to have automation."

Forward spin: Autonomy's business model is proving profitable and it has few direct competitors with similar technology.

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