- IBM wants its former top exec in Thailand to return $470,000 in bonuses after taking a job at a rival.
- IBM said Patama Chantaruck violated an equity awards plan when she started working at Accenture.
IBM wants its former top executive in Thailand to return $470,000 in bonuses after she started a job at one of its competitors, Accenture, just six weeks after leaving the company.
In a lawsuit filed in New York Monday, which Insider has reviewed, IBM said that Patama Chantaruck started working at IBM Thailand as the country's general manager in 2018. This made her "the highest-ranking IBM executive in Thailand," the company said.
During her employment, Chantaruck received a number equity awards from IBM as part of an agreement to safeguard IBM's confidential information, and "not engage in certain proscribed competitive conduct within specific time periods," the company wrote in the lawsuit.
IBM said that under the plan it was entitled to rescind the equity awards if Chantaruck engaged in "detrimental activity," which it said included accepting employment with competitors within a restricted time period.
Insider reached out to IBM for clarification on the length of this time period, but did not immediately hear back.
Chantaruck resigned from IBM Thailand, effective February 28, 2022, the suit says. Less than six weeks later, on April 11, she started working at Accenture in what IBM says is a role "highly similar" to what she did at IBM Thailand.
On Chantaruck's LinkedIn, she lists her job title as country managing director at Accenture Thailand. The dates of employment listed on her profile tally with what IBM states in the lawsuit.
IBM claimed in the lawsuit that it was canceling and rescinding the equity awards and demanded repayment of $470,220.96 by November 1, which it later extended to January 9, but that Chantaruck has, "without justification, refused and failed" to repay the amount.
IBM sued Chantaruck for breach of contract and asked the court to order her to repay the bonuses plus interest, as well as IBM's attorneys' fees and costs.
Chantaruck, who had previously spent more than 20 years working at Microsoft, was listed as one of the Bangkok Post's 24 Women of the Year in 2021.
Chantaruck did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on LinkedIn. Bloomberg first reported on the lawsuit.