Thomas

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

CHRISTOPHER REID THOMAS, Case No. 25-cv-05835-RFL

Plaintiff,

ORDER TRANSFERRING CASE

v. Re: Dkt. No.

AMPERSAND, INC.,

Defendant.

Christopher Reid Thomas works in the EB-5 sector, an industry “encouraging foreign investment [into the United States] in exchange for the opportunity to obtain permanent residence.” (See Dkt. No. 1 (the “Complaint”) ¶ 15.) In August 2023, he began working for Ampersand, a financial services company, as its Chief Strategy Officer. His employment agreement contained a noncompete clause. In April 2025, Ampersand terminated Thomas’s employment, ostensibly for cause, stemming from his purportedly poor performance. The company subsequently sent him a cease and desist letter, invoking the employment agreement’s noncompete clause, in connection with his ongoing work for a consulting company that he had founded about two months before termination. Thomas then commenced this action in which he seeks primarily two forms of relief: (1) a declaration voiding the noncompete clause and an injunction barring its enforcement; and (2) damages for Ampersand’s alleged breach of the…