gone is the City director who played a cameo role in the Autonomy trial

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Jonathan Bloomer, among those missing after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily, ended a long career as an accountant and insurance executive with an unusual star turn: a defense witness in the trial of Mike Lynch in San Francisco.

Lynch, who is also missing after Bayesian’s yacht went down in bad weather on Monday, has been accused of fraud in connection with the sale of his software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011.

Bloomer, 70, who was appointed to Autonomy’s board in a non-executive capacity in 2010, told the court in May that Lynch was “not particularly interested in the financial side” and preferred to focus on strategy and products. A day later, Lynch took the stand himself and in June was acquitted.

Bloomer and his wife Judy, who is also missing, were among the guests invited on Lynch’s yacht to celebrate the victory.

Bloomer is best known for his time at the helm of FTSE 100 insurer Prudential, which he joined as chief financial officer from accountancy firm Arthur Andersen in 1995. Within five years, he rose to the top job.

Aviva chairman George Culmer, who was Prudential’s financial controller, recalls a highly intelligent executive who was always “complimentary, charming, kind and fair”. “He’s always built really good teams,” Culmer said. “People were loyal to him. He would follow him.”

Bloomer’s tenure as Prudential’s chief executive was turbulent, coinciding with the dotcom crash and the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York. While he was credited with driving the group’s growth in Asia and cutting costs, shareholders received a series of disappointments that eventually led to his departure after five years on the job.

First came a failed multibillion-pound effort to buy US insurer American General and absorb it into the Pru’s US arm in 2002, which was heavily criticized by shareholders and sent the company’s share price down.

Then, in 2003, Bloomer cut its dividend for the first time since the First World War to shore up the company’s depleted capital, despite repeated assurances that the group planned to keep increasing payouts.

After launching a surprise £1 billion rights issue in 2004 and despite previous support from Prudential chairman David Clementi, he was ousted in a coup and replaced by Mark Tucker in 2005.

“He wasn’t a natural CEO,” said a former colleague. “He wasn’t ruthless enough. He was too confident.”

After his decade at Prudential, Bloomer joined private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management as a European partner, where he remained for six years until 2012.

However, in the years since leaving the Pru, Bloomer has had a multifaceted career, combining a number of non-executive roles — including a position as chairman of the audit committee at Autonomy, which would put him at the center of a case in which alleged that Lynch’s software company falsely inflated its revenue.

HP argued that Autonomy used loss-making hardware sales to offset shortfalls in its quarterly revenue. Large hardware sales were reportedly noted in Autonomy’s audit reports, which were reviewed by Bloomer as part of his boardroom role.

During his testimony at the trial, Bloomer explained that some of the accounting later flagged as suspicious by US prosecutors was acceptable under UK rules.

Associates described Bloomer as a man of humble origins who found it easy to connect with colleagues and inspire loyalty while maintaining a certain distance.

“He didn’t like hierarchy or status,” said one senior insurance executive. “But he also liked to dress well in nice suits and he liked the finer things in life.”

A physics graduate of Imperial College London, Bloomer founded Cerberus-backed pension buyout business Lucida, which was sold to Legal & General in 2013.

The sailing and rugby enthusiast has also sat on the boards of several financial services companies, including legal services firm DWF Group and Arrow Global Group, a European investment firm.

His most recent roles have been at Morgan Stanley International, the UK arm of the Wall Street bank, where he has chaired the board since 2018, and at London-listed insurer Hiscox, where he has served as non-executive chairman since 2018 . last year.

“We are deeply shocked and saddened by this tragedy. Our thoughts are with all those affected, especially the Bloomer family, as we all await further news from this dire situation,” said a Morgan Stanley spokesperson.

Hiscox chief executive Aki Hussain said the company was “deeply shocked and saddened by this tragic event”.

Additional reporting by Patrick Jenkins