IBM has filed a lawsuit at the federal court in New York against Microsoft’s new chief diversity officer, Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, for allegedly using information acquired while she was working at IBM to boost Microsoft’s diversity efforts, violating a non-compete agreement.
Sour grapes
The incident is not the first high profile case involving a former IBM employee. Just last year, the company sued the former CIO of its cloud division, Jeff S. Smith, also on the grounds of having breached a non-compete agreement, after he accepted a position at AWS that was due to begin before the compulsory one year delay.
In that case, IBM was successful, as Smith took up the position of COO at World Fuel Systems in October.
The latest suit alleges that McIntyre, who had been working for IBM since 1999, holds the knowledge of the company’s “most closely guarded” and “competitively sensitive” recruitment plans, and has extensive knowledge of its strategy to “recruit, retain and promote diverse talent.”
Further, it alleges, “McIntyre knows confidential data about diverse representation in every segment of IBM’s workforce; she personally oversaw the teams responsible for developing Artificial Intelligence-based tools and methodologies designed to track career development, recommend growth opportunities and potential paths for promotion, and monitor diversity metrics at the company.”
The hearing for the case will take place on February 22nd, pending which McIntyre has been temporarily banned from taking up her position at Microsoft.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Microsoft said that Lindsey’s “work and that of her team’s has been acknowledged through a variety of prestigious diversity-related awards.” The company’s so-called chief people officer and executive vice president of human resources, Kathleen Hogan, stated that “With her extensive expertise, Lindsay-Rae will bring great perspective and leadership as we look to build on our strengths.”