One of Tampa-St. Pete’s top female founders sues company after ouster

Julia MacGregor-Peralta, founder and former CEO of Global Safety Management Inc., is suing the company for breach of contract.

A lawsuit filed Friday in Hillsborough County Circuit Court said MacGregor-Peralta was fired on April 3 and the company has refused to pay salary, benefits and expenses that she says are owed to her.

MacGregor-Peralta said she could not comment, and Global Safety Management did not return a call for comment. Global Safety Management, based in Tampa, provides safety data sheets for manufacturers, using patent-pending, cloud-based Software-as-a-Service originally designed by MacGregor-Peralta, as the St. Pete Catalyst previously reported.

MacGregor-Peralta is considered one of the leading female founders in technology in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area. Under her leadership, Global Safety Management raised millions in investment backing, including $4.1 million in an investment round led by Florida Funders about a year ago. Global Safety Management was named Startup of the Year by TiE Tampa Bay in 2019.

MacGregor-Peralta signed an employment contract to serve as CEO of Global Safety Management on Jan. 1, 2017, the lawsuit said. The contract, which was filed as an exhibit with the lawsuit, called for her to be paid $175,000 a year, with potential discretionary bonus of up to $25,000 a year, and reimbursement for business expenses. The company also agreed to pay her base salary for three months if her employment was terminated, unless she was fired for cause.

Global Safety hired a new CEO in February 2020, and terminated MacGregor-Peralta’s employment on April 3, the lawsuit said. Since then, “Defendant [Global Safety] has failed and refused to pay Plaintiff [MacGregor-Peralta] her contracted wages for several weeks in both 2019 and 2020 [and] Defendant has failed and refused to reimburse Plaintiff for valid and incurred business expenses,” the lawsuit said. It also said that MacGregor-Peralta has not been paid her bonus or severance as required under the agreement.

MacGregor-Peralta is in the process of preparing and filing a charge of discrimination, the lawsuit said.

She’s seeking damages, which the lawsuit said exceed $30,000, and is asking for a jury trial.