34-year IBM exec sues tech giant over age and origin bias

Over his more than three decades at IBM, Msays held senior leadership positions across IBM Consulting, consulting with clients and leading teams in approximately 60 countries. Most recently, he led the company’s Global Enterprise Applications Managed Services business. Between 2021 and 2023, his unit allegedly achieved 42% cumulative growth — substantially outperforming both IBM Consulting and the wider company over the same period.

Yet Msays claims those results were not enough. He alleges he was passed over for promotion to Band B — IBM’s higher-tier executive classification — on three separate occasions, each time in favor of Asian counterparts.

The most detailed allegation centers on the Global Hybrid Cloud Management leader role. Msays claims that in January 2024, the position went to a younger, less-experienced colleague of Indian descent whose own business unit was allegedly the focus of an internal investigation concerning inflated financial results at the time of his selection. By April 2024, the filing states, nine out of 10 direct reports under that division’s senior leader were Asian of Indian descent.

The lawsuit also draws on a well-documented chapter in IBM’s history. It references the EEOC’s 2020 finding of “reasonable cause” that IBM discriminated against older workers, including evidence of “top-down messaging” from senior leadership pushing managers to cut older headcount to make room for early professional hires. Internal emails cited in the filing allegedly referred to older employees as “dinobabies,” with one executive outlining a plan to make them an “extinct species.”

Perhaps most striking for HR professionals: the filing cites a purportedly recorded video of IBM CEO Arvind Krishna stating that all executives must advance diversity metrics by one percentage point on underrepresented minorities and gender — or see their bonuses reduced. That allegation puts a spotlight on the risks of tying executive compensation directly to demographic targets.