<PAGE>

                                                                   EXHIBIT 10.17

                              EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT

                                     between

                           PEAK INTERNATIONAL LIMITED

                                       and

                                  JACK MENACHE

                             Dated: December 1, 2000

<PAGE>

THIS AGREEMENT is made as of the first day of December, 2000 between PEAK
INTERNATIONAL LIMITED, a company incorporated in Bermuda, with its principal
office at 44091 Nobel Drive, Fremont, CA 94538 (the "Company"); and Jack
Menache, residing at 4073 Eagle Nest Lane, Danville, CA 94506-5811 (the
"Employee").

The parties agree as follows:

1.     PAYMENT UPON TERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT

       1.1.   The term ("Term") of this Agreement shall commence on the date of
              execution of this Agreement and shall remain in effect for a
              period of three years from the date of this agreement (the
              "Employment").

       1.2.   Subject to clauses 1.4 and 3, the Employee shall be entitled to a
              lump-sum payment in an amount equal to 12 months base salary at
              the greater of the rate in effect on the effective date or as
              increased from time to time hereafter, and any accrued but unused
              vacation pay (the "Termination Payment") within 15 days of the
              termination of the Employment during the term hereof, and all of
              Employee's stock options which would have vested within 18 months
              of the date of termination of the Employment shall immediately
              vest in full and, notwithstanding anything to the contrary
              contained in any other document, be fully exercisable for a period
              of one year.

       1.3.   The Termination Payment shall be in full and final settlement of
              any rights, payments or benefits to which the Employee is entitled
              under any other agreement or arrangement pursuant to which he is
              employed by the Company or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates
              other than:

              1.3.1. benefits pursuant to any life, disability, health, or other
                     insurance policy or benefit plan provided by the Company;

              1.3.2. stock options issued to Employee pursuant to any stock
                     option plan of the Company.

       1.4.   The Employee shall not be entitled to the Termination Payment when
              the Employment is terminated in any of the following circumstances
              (the Employee being entitled, in such circumstances, only to
              payment for accrued and unused vacation, any payments to which he
              is otherwise entitled pursuant to life, disability, health or
              other insurance plan, and to exercise any stock option to the
              extent otherwise vested and exercisable under the terms of such
              plan and stock option agreements):

              1.4.1. the conviction of the Employee of a felony involving
                     dishonesty;

              1.4.2. termination of the Employee for Cause. "Cause" shall mean
                     (i) Employee's conviction of or guilty plea to the
                     commission of an act or acts constituting a

                                       2

<PAGE>

                     felony under the laws of the United States or any state
                     thereof, (ii) action by the Employee involving personal
                     dishonesty, theft or fraud in connection with the
                     Employee's duties as an officer of the Company, or (iii) a
                     breach of any one or more material terms of this Agreement
                     (including but not limited to the confidentiality and
                     non-solicitation provisions contained herein.)

              1.4.3. any material breach by the Employee of the terms of this
                     Agreement that the Employee has failed to cure within 10
                     days of receipt of written notice of such breach from the
                     Company;

              1.4.4. the death of the Employee;

              1.4.5. the inability of the Employee due to ill health or physical
                     or mental condition to perform the duties and
                     responsibilities in the ordinary and usual manner required
                     of a person in the Employee's position for 180 consecutive
                     days;

              1.4.6. the resignation by the Employee, except if such resignation
                     is the result of any of the following actions by the
                     company: (1) the assignment to the Employee of any duties
                     materially inconsistent with the Employee's position with
                     the Company on the date of this Agreement or a substantial
                     adverse alteration in the nature of the Employee's
                     responsibilities from those in effect on the date of this
                     Agreement; or (2) a material reduction by the Company of
                     the Employee's annual base salary in effect on the date
                     hereof or as the same may be increased from time to time.

2.     CHANGE IN CONTROL

       2.1.   "Change in Control" of the Company means any transaction or series
              of transactions in which any of the following occurs:

              2.1.1. the acquisition by any "person" (as such term is used in
                     Section 13(d) and 14(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of
                     1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act") (other than by an
                     Excluded Person (as defined below) or by the Company or a
                     person that directly or indirectly controls, is controlled
                     by, or is under common control with, the Company) of the
                     "beneficial ownership" (as defined in Rule 13d-3 under the
                     Exchange Act), directly or indirectly, of securities of the
                     Company representing fifty percent (50%) or more of the
                     total voting power represented by the Company's then
                     outstanding voting securities,

              2.1.2. the consummation of a merger or consolidation of the
                     Company with or into any other corporation, other than a
                     merger or consolidation that would result in the voting
                     securities of the Company outstanding prior thereto
                     continuing to represent (either by remaining outstanding or
                     by being converted into voting securities of the surviving
                     entity) at least fifty percent (50%) of the total voting
                     power represented by the voting securities of the Company
                     or such surviving entity outstanding

<PAGE>

                     immediately after such merger or consolidation, or

              2.1.3. the consummation of a plan of complete liquidation of the
                     Company or of the sale or disposition by the Company of all
                     or substantially all of the Company's assets; provided,
                     however, that a Change of Control shall not be deemed to
                     have occurred as a result of the consummation of
                     transactions pursuant to that certain Purchase Agreement
                     relating to the Common Stock between Luckygold 18A Limited
                     and Peak TrENDS Trust dated as of May 28, 1998. As used
                     herein, "Excluded Person" means T.L. Li, any of his
                     immediate family members, trusts established for the
                     exclusive benefit of T.L. Li or any of his immediate family
                     members and any person who controls, is controlled by or is
                     under common control with T.L. Li, including without
                     limitation, Luckygold 18A Limited; provided, however, that
                     for the purposes of the definition of Excluded Person,
                     "control" means the beneficial ownership of more than 50%
                     of the total voting power of a person normally entitled to
                     vote in the election of directors, managers or trustees, as
                     applicable to a person.

       2.2.   In the event Employee's employment with the Company is terminated
              in anticipation of or within two years following a Change of
              Control (i) by the Company without Good Cause or (ii) by Employee
              with Good Reason (as defined below), then, in addition to the
              payments Employee shall be entitled to pursuant to paragraph 1,
              above, all of Employee's stock options shall immediately vest in
              full and, notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in
              any other document, be fully exercisable for a period of one year.

3.     LIMITATION ON PAYMENTS

       3.1.   In the event that the payments to Employee under this Agreement
              (i) constitute "parachute payments" within the meaning of Section
              280G of the Code, and (ii) but for this Section 3, would be
              subject to the excise tax imposed by Section 4999 of the Internal
              Revenue Code or any similar or successor provision, then the
              payments shall be reduced to such lesser amount that would result
              in no portion of the payments being subject to excise tax under
              Section 4999 of the Internal Revenue Code. Any determination
              required under this Section 3 shall be made by the Company's
              independent accountants (the "Accountants"), whose determination
              shall be conclusive and binding upon Employee and the Company for
              all purposes. For purposes of making the calculations required by
              this Section 3, the Accountants may make reasonable assumptions
              and approximations concerning applicable taxes and may rely on
              reasonable, good faith interpretations concerning the application
              of Sections 280G and 4999 of the Code. The Company and Employee
              shall furnish to the Accountants such information and documents as
              the Accountants may reasonably request in order to make a
              determination under this Section 3.

4.     CONFIDENTIALITY

                                       4

<PAGE>

     4.1. The Employee understands that by virtue of the Employment, the
          Employee has been and will be exposed to confidential information,
          including all ideas, information and materials, tangible or
          intangible, relating to the business of the Company and its
          subsidiaries, their personnel (including their officers, directors,
          shareholders, trustees, agents, employees and contractors), their
          customers, clients, vendors, suppliers, distributors, consultants, and
          others with whom the Company and its subsidiaries do business
          ("Confidential Information").

     4.2. The Employee agrees not to disclose any Confidential Information
          obtained during the Employment for a period of 12 months after the
          termination of the Employment and thereafter not to disclose the same
          unless the Employee shall have procured that the proposed recipient of
          the Confidential Information has entered into an undertaking with the
          Employee to keep the same confidential on terms no less exacting than
          those set out herein; and provided always that the Employee shall not
          be obliged to keep confidential any Confidential Information required
          to be disclosed as a matter of law or to the extent that it becomes
          generally known to the public other than as a result of any breach by
          the Employee of the terms herein.

     4.3. The Employee covenants and undertakes that after the termination of
          the Employment, the Employee

          4.3.1.   shall not for a period of 12 months after the termination of
                 the Employment use any Confidential Information for any
                 purpose;

          4.3.2.   shall not retain or take with the Employee any Confidential
                 Information in a tangible form, which includes ideas,
                 information or materials in written or graphic form, on a
                 computer disc or other medium, or otherwise stored in or
                 available through electronic or other form ("Tangible Form");
                 and

          4.3.3.   shall immediately deliver to the Company any Confidential
                 Information in a Tangible Form that the Employee may then or
                 thereafter hold or control, as well as all other property,
                 equipment, documents or things that the Employee was issued or
                 otherwise received or obtained during the Employment.

5.   RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS

     5.1. The Employee covenants and undertakes that for a period of 12 months
          following the termination of the Employment for any
          reason, the Employee shall not:

     5.2. directly or indirectly induce any person who is an employee of the
          Company (or any of its subsidiaries) to terminate his or her
          employment with the Company (or any of its subsidiaries), whether or
          not such termination constitutes a breach of that person's employment
          contract;

                                       5

<PAGE>

     5.3. directly or indirectly solicit the customer or business of any person
          who, as at the date of termination of the Employment, is (or, within
          the preceding period of 12 months, was) a client or customer of the
          Company or its subsidiaries, with the intention or for the purpose of
          supplying (or procuring the supply of) precision engineered
          semiconductor packing material (including, without limitation, the
          collecting and recycling of semiconductor packing material); or

     5.4. directly or indirectly and whether on his own account or on account of
          any future employer, partner or associate, compete with the Company or
          otherwise engage in or provide services related to the precision
          engineered semiconductor packing business (including, without
          limitation, the business of collecting and recycling semiconductor
          packing material) in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia or the United
          States of America.

     5.5. Notwithstanding the term specified in clause 3.1, the Employee may
          accept employment with, or provide services as an independent
          contractor to, a client or customer of the Company or its subsidiaries
          if, to do so, will not breach any term or condition of this Agreement.

6.   RELEASE

     6.1. In consideration of, and as an express condition precedent to, the
          Company's obligation to make the Termination Payment, the Employee
          shall sign and deliver to the Company a General Release in the form
          attached hereto as Appendix 1.

     6.2. The Company shall not be obliged to make the Termination Payment in
          the event that the General Release is not signed and delivered to the
          Company within 15 days of receipt of notice following termination of
          the Employment and the Company shall, thereafter, be released of its
          duties and obligations or further duties and obligations under this
          Agreement and the Employee shall waive or cause to be waived any
          claims that the Employee may have under this Agreement.

7.   ASSIGNMENT

     7.1. The rights and obligations under this Agreement shall inure to and be
          binding upon the parties hereto and their respective heirs, successors
          and assigns.

8.   NOTICES

     8.1. All notices and other communications provided for hereunder must be in
          writing and must be sent by courier to the party's address indicated
          above or to such other address as may be designated by a party by
          notice.

     8.2. Notices hereunder shall be effective when delivered.

9.   MISCELLANEOUS

                                       6

<PAGE>

     9.1. This Agreement shall supersede any and all prior written or oral
          agreements and discussions between the Employee and the Company
          regarding the subject matter hereof and this Agreement contains the
          entire understanding of the parties in respect of the subject matter
          hereof.

     9.2. If any of the restrictions contained in this Agreement shall be void
          or unenforceable, then the remainder of this Agreement shall be
          enforced to the fullest extent permitted by law.

     9.3. This Agreement is made in and shall be governed by and construed in
          accordance with the laws of the state of California.

10.  DISPUTES

     10.1.      Any dispute hereunder shall be settled by binding arbitration in
          Alameda County, CA in the English language before a single arbitrator
          pursuant to the rules of the American Arbitration Association. Each
          party shall bear its own legal fees and costs. The cost of arbitration
          shall be paid by the Company.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the parties hereto have duly executed this Agreement the day
and year first above written.



/s/ Jack Menache
----------------------------
Jack Menache





SIGNED by /s/ Calvin Reed
         ---------------------------
duly authorized for and on behalf of
PEAK INTERNATIONAL LIMITED

                                       7

<PAGE>

                                   APPENDIX I


                                 GENERAL RELEASE

[Insert Date]

I, Jack Menache, hereby release Peak International Limited (the "Company") of
certain duties and obligations and waive any rights or remedies that I may have
against the Company as provided in this letter. This letter is delivered
pursuant to the Employment Agreement entered into between the Company and me
dated December 1, 2000 (the "Employment Agreement").

In consideration of the promises and mutual covenants contained in the
Employment Agreement, and for good and valuable consideration, the receipt and
sufficiency of which is expressly acknowledged, I hereby:

     1.   release and discharge the Company and its subsidiaries, and each of
          their respective past and present officers, directors, shareholders,
          managers, employees and agents, and their respective successors and
          assigns (collectively the "Released Parties"), from any and all claims
          or demands, that I may have, whether past, present or future, against
          the Released Parties, statutory or otherwise, to the fullest extent
          permissible by law; and

     2.   waive the obligations, duties and liabilities that the Company may
          have, whether past, present or future, statutory or otherwise, to the
          fullest extent permissible by law; arising out of or relating in any
          way to my employment with or termination of my employment with the
          Company.

This letter shall be governed by, subject to and construed and enforced pursuant
to the terms and conditions of the Employment Agreement.

______________________________
Jack Menache

                                       8