EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT
Exhbit 10.3
This EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT (“Agreement”), dated as of September 9, 2015 (the “Effective Date”), is made by and between True Drinks Inc., a Delaware corporation, located at 00000 XxxXxxxxx Xxxx., Xxxxxx, Xxxxxxxxxx 00000 (the “Company”), and Xxxxxx Xxx Xxxxxx, whose address is Rancho Santa Margarita, CA. (“Employee”), based upon the following:
The term of Employee’s employment under this Agreement shall commence effective as of the Effective Date and shall continue for a period of two years (the “Term”), unless earlier terminated as herein provided or by operation of law. Thereafter, this Agreement and the Term shall be extended automatically for successive one year periods unless terminated in accordance with the terms hereof or unless either party hereto, not less than one month before the commencement of any such one year extension period, provides notice of such termination to the other party hereto. For all purposes of this Agreement, the Term shall include and be deemed to include all extensions of this Agreement. This Agreement may be terminated prior to the expiration of the Term by either party, without limitation, by the provision of notice of termination of this Agreement to the other party thirty (30) days in advance, except as permitted upon termination for “Cause” as set forth in Section 8. The notice period does not commence until actually received by the other party.
Employee shall report to the Company’s Chief Executive Officer or as otherwise instructed by the Company’s board of directors (the “Board”) and shall render his services and assert his best efforts on behalf of the Company, devoting full time in the performance of his duties consistent with the needs of the Company and the practices of the industry. Employee shall perform his duties diligently and competently. The Company recognizes that the Employee has positions on other Community based Advisory Boards and on occasion may be contracted as a Consultant by other third parties. The Company accepts this as a reality and, provided the Employee renders his service on a full time basis to Company, the Company accepts this on a “time to time” basis during the period of this Agreement. Employee shall be primarily responsible for the duties set forth on Exhibit A attached hereto. Employee shall do and perform all services, acts, or things necessary or advisable to discharge his duties under this Agreement, and such other duties as are commonly performed by an employee of his rank or which may, from time to time, be prescribed by the Company through its managers, the Board, and/or the Company’s executives. Furthermore, Employee agrees to cooperate with and work to the best of his ability with the Company’s management team, the officers and other employees, to continually improve the Company’s reputation in its industry for quality products and performance.
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The Base Salary shall be paid to Employee in accordance with the periodic payroll practices of the Company for employees.
The Company shall promptly reimburse Employee for all reasonable business expenses incurred by Employee in connection with the business of the Company. However, each such expenditure shall be reimbursable only if Employee furnishes to the Company adequate records and other documentary evidence required by federal and state statutes and regulations issued by the appropriate taxing authorities for the substantiation of each such expenditure as an income tax deduction.
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The Company shall indemnify and hold harmless Employee from any and all liability arising from Employee’s actions taken on the Company’s behalf and within Employee’s scope of duties and authority, so long as such actions were taken by Employee in good faith and in furtherance of the Company’s business. The Company shall indemnify and hold Employee harmless to the full extent of the law from any and all claims, losses and expenses sustained by Employee as a result of any action taken by him to discharge his duties under this Agreement, and the Company shall defend Employee, at the Company’s expense, in connection with any and all claims by shareholders or third parties which are based upon actions taken by Employee to discharge his duties under this Agreement.
Employee agrees to promptly and faithfully comply with all present and future policies, requirements, directions, and reasonable requests of Company executives and/or management and any rules, regulations, or other policies of the Company in connection with the Company’s business and Employee’s duties hereunder.
Notwithstanding any provision hereunder, the Company may terminate Employee’s employment immediately if such termination is for “Cause.” For purposes of this Agreement, “Cause” shall mean:
(a) Employee is convicted of any fraud or embezzlement against the Company; or
(b) After written notice and an opportunity to cure, Employee willfully breaches or habitually neglects the duties and responsibilities which he is required to perform under the terms of this Agreement; or
(c) Employee commits such acts of dishonesty, fraud, misrepresentation, gross negligence or willful misconduct which results in material harm to the Company or its business; or
(d) Employee violates any law, rule or regulation applicable to the Company or Employee relating to the business operations of the Company that may have a material adverse effect upon the Company’s business, operations or condition (financial or otherwise).
The Company may terminate this Agreement for Cause immediately upon written notice of termination to Employee; provided, however, if the Company terminates this Agreement due to Employee’s willful breach or habitual neglect of the duties he is required to perform, Employee shall be entitled to a period of thirty (30) days from the date of the initial written notice of termination to cure said breach. Except as otherwise set forth in this Section 8, upon any termination for “Cause,” the obligations of Employee and the Company under this Agreement shall immediately cease. Such termination shall be without prejudice to any other remedy to which the Company may be entitled either at law, in equity, or under this Agreement.
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The For Cause Payment shall constitute Employee’s sole right and exclusive remedy in the event of such termination of Employee’s employment, and upon payment by the Company of the For Cause Payment, all other rights or remedies otherwise available shall cease immediately, and the Company shall have no further obligations to Employee under this Agreement, except that Employee shall have the right to exercise all benefits that have vested as of the date of termination to which Employee is entitled under any compensation or employee benefit plan of the Company in accordance with the terms and provisions of such compensation or employee benefit plan, all other documents and agreements that give rise to or otherwise govern such vested benefits and all applicable laws and regulations. Employee shall be entitled to receive such For Cause Payment only after Employee executes a waiver and general release in favor of the Company (but not Employee).
The Without Cause Severance Payment shall constitute Employee’s sole right and exclusive remedy in the event of such termination of Employee’s employment, and upon payment by the Company of the Without Cause Severance Payment, all other rights or remedies otherwise available shall cease immediately, and the Company shall have no further obligations to Employee under this Agreement, except that Employee shall have the right to exercise all benefits that have vested as of the date of termination to which Employee is entitled under any compensation or employee benefit plan of the Company in accordance with the terms and provisions of such compensation or employee benefit plan, all other documents and agreements that give rise to or otherwise govern such vested benefits and all applicable laws and regulations.
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At the time of the termination of Employee’s employment with the Company, Employee shall deliver to the Company (and will not keep in his possession, recreate or deliver to anyone else) any and all devices, records, data, notes, reports, proposals, lists, correspondence, specifications, drawings, blueprints, sketches, laboratory notebooks, materials, flow charts, equipment, other documents or property, or reproductions of any aforementioned items developed by Employee pursuant to Employee’s employment with the Company or otherwise belonging to the Company, its successors or assigns. Employee further agrees any property situated on the Company’s premises and owned by the Company, including disks and other storage media, filing cabinets or other work areas, is subject to inspection by Company personnel at any time with or without notice. In the event of the termination of Employee’s employment hereunder, Employee agrees to sign and deliver a “Termination Certification” is a form reasonably requested by the Company.
In the event that Employee leaves the employ of the Company, Employee hereby consents to notification by the Company to his new employer about Employee’s rights and obligations under this Agreement.
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During the period of Employee’s employment with the Company, and for a period of twenty-four (24) months immediately following the termination of Employee’s employment with the Company for any reason, Employee shall not either directly or indirectly solicit, induce, recruit or encourage any of the Company’s employees or consultants to terminate their relationship with the Company, or take away such employees or consultants, or attempt to solicit, induce, recruit, encourage or take away employees or consultants of the Company, either for himself or for any other person or entity. Further, for a period of twenty-four (24) months following termination of Employee’s employment with the Company for any reason, with or without cause, Employee shall not solicit any investor in, licensor to, or customer of the Company or licensee of the Company’s products, with respect to any business, products or services who are competitive to the products or services offered by the Company or under development as of the date of termination of Employee’s employment with the Company. Employee further agrees that, during the Term and for a period of five years following the termination of this Agreement, Employee will not engage in any conduct that is injurious to the reputation(s) and interest(s) of the Company and/or the Company’s past or present directors, officers, agents, fiduciaries, trustees, administrators, employees or assigns, including but not limited to disparaging (or inducing or encouraging others to disparage) the Company and/or any of the foregoing individuals. For purposes of this Agreement, the term “disparage” includes without limitation, making any statement that would adversely affect in any manner the conduct of the Company’s businesses, the business reputation of the Company and/or any of the foregoing individuals, and/or the personal reputation of any of the foregoing individuals.
If any of the foregoing provisions of this Section 14 is found by any court, agency or arbitrator of competent jurisdiction to be unenforceable because it extends for too long a period of time or over too great a range of activities or in too broad a geographic area, it shall be interpreted to extend over the maximum period of time, range of activities or geographic area as to which it may be enforceable.
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(ii) Consent to Jurisdiction; Service of Process. Any action or proceeding arising out of or relating to this Agreement shall be filed in and heard and litigated solely before the state courts of California located within the County of Orange.
(e)
rights and benefits under this Agreement are personal to him and therefore (i) no such right
No Assignment of Rights or Delegation of Duties by Employee. Employee’s or benefit shall be subject to voluntary or involuntary alienation, assignment or transfer; and (ii) Employee may not delegate his duties or obligations hereunder.
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(h) Execution by All Parties Required to be Binding; Electronically Transmitted Documents. This Agreement shall not be construed to be an offer and shall have no force and effect until this Agreement is fully executed by all parties hereto. If a copy or counterpart of this Agreement is originally executed and such copy or counterpart is thereafter transmitted electronically by facsimile or similar device, such facsimile document shall for all purposes be treated as if manually signed by the party whose facsimile signature appears.
IN THE WITNESS HEREOF, the parties execute this employment agreement as of the date written above:
TRUE DRINKS INC.
/s/ Xxxxx Xxxxxxx
Xxxxx Xxxxxxx, CEO
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EMPLOYEE
/s/ Xxxxxx Xxx Xxxxxx
Xxxxxx Xxx Xxxxxx
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Schedule A
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Responsibilities:
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Planning/Management
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Responsible for all product quality and costing from the formulation development, sourcing, to the end user package.
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Develop, implement, and manage a strategy for contract manufacturing short term and long term.
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Source, hire, direct and manage all contract manufacturing and the related raw material, components for the end user packages.
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Review and development of ongoing testing practices to insure certification, FDA, US, and International requirements are met. This includes other organizational certifications specific to the benefit of the brand.
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Direct and coordinate company’s domestic and international inventory and transportation functions.
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Research and develop strategies and plans, which identify improved efficiencies in manufacturing, effective delivery of product to customers domestically and international.
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Work directly with brand management to consistently deliver the highest quality formulations and products.
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Consistently understand and evaluate the changes in economy and world events that may effect raw material costs and fuel costs. Make recommendations and decisions that effectively manage these costs.
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Develop and oversee all budgets for operations and logistics activities annually and report budgets to expenses.
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Coordinate with sales and marketing to develop forecasting and package change strategies.
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Make appropriate recommendations in package changes that may better the organization’s effectiveness.
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Establish and implement short- and long-range goals, objectives, policies, and operating procedures.
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Implement tracking tools that will enable the ability to analyze and evaluate effectiveness of plans.
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Keep up to date on technology.
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Operations/Logistics
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Insure that appropriate efficiencies are implemented in the transportation process to include time, inventory, space, errors, and distance.
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On an on-going basis, evaluate ports of entry, storage locations, and effective inventory management.
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Source and implement software systems that will approve efficiency.
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Participate and approve all fulfillment operations, warehouse selection, and management of transportation.
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Manage and track all raw materials; constantly review suppliers and costs changes.
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Understand plant operations; make periodic visits to the plant/source and review job cost, productivity reports and overall cost of goods analysis.
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Understand international dynamics for distribution and supply chain and consistently evaluate efficiencies.
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Participate and approve all major asset acquisitions, i.e. factory equipment, computers, etc.
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