Alexandria Sues Former Executive, Claiming Stolen Trade Secrets
The largest life sciences developer in the country alleges an ex-regional head stole some of the company's most sensitive information, including risk assessment and recovery plans if projects go sideways.
Alexandria Real Estate Equities filed a lawsuit this week in Massachusetts federal court against William DePippo, alleging the former senior vice president with the company stole confidential information regarding the REIT's properties, finances and other sensitive documents.
DePippo, who oversaw the REIT's mid-Atlantic region but was based in Wrentham, Massachusetts, allegedly downloaded the materials from the company's secure file sharing program to his personal email account, which ARE argues was a breach of his contract and fiduciary duty to the company.
Alexandria declined to comment on the lawsuit, and DePippo didn't respond to Bisnow's request for comment. Law360 first reported the suit.
The Pasadena, California-based company first began inspecting DePippo's accounts in February, claiming it saw activity that was in clear violation of company policy.
It claimed it found DePippo used the company's ShareFile program to transmit sensitive information. DePippo downloaded hundreds of sensitive documents and sent them to his personal email account under an alias, the lawsuit says.
The downloaded documents included plans for cost recovery on specific properties, corporate memos, detailed project budgets, draft lease agreements, and forms and templates for several types of change orders, contracts and project onboarding. It also included “risk analyses, including identification of potential risks relevant to the life sciences real estate business and proposed mitigation efforts,” Alexandria claimed.
The company also flagged concerning email correspondence DePippo allegedly sent. He allegedly wrote in one message that he planned “to flip everyone off and go run a company — and do my own thing,” and expressed disdain for company leaders, according to the lawsuit.
ARE said it met with DePippo after the information was made known but claimed that DePippo only acknowledged that it would be “concerning” if he did download the information to a personal device. He was fired on Feb. 28, according to the suit.
DePippo began his career with ARE in April 2014 as senior director of construction and development. In 2021, he was promoted to senior vice president of real estate development in the mid-Atlantic.
He led the team that completed a 250K SF life sciences building at 9820 Darnestown Road in Rockville, Maryland, in 2024.
ARE owns 3.8M SF of life sciences space at its Maryland and Research Triangle megacampuses. The firm has been prioritizing its megacampus strategy in recent years as the biotech sector continues to slow.
