Executive Director
ConnectLA
Veneeth Iyengar is the First Executive Director for Broadband Development & Connectivity for the State of the Louisiana. He is responsible for coordinating efforts between Federal, State and local leaders to eliminating the digital divide in Louisiana by 2029. His work has been cited by Schmidt Futures, Former FCC officials and Quadra Partners for the rapid scale up for the newest Louisiana State Office.
Previously, Veneeth was Assistant Chief Administrative Officer for Mayor-President Broome in the City of Baton Rouge/East Baton Rouge Parish. and was the lead City/Parish executive from the Mayor’s Office focused on Economic Development. During his time, 2019 & 2020 resulted in the best year in history for Economic Development projects in the parish in terms of Capex, projects secured and diversity of projects – his role included outreach to CEO’s and executives from leading tech, pharma and healthcare companies throughout the country and was involved intimately in the investment cycle of economic development deals including leading the Mayor’s Office in the recent Amazon acquisition of Cortana Mall and the redevelopment of a 76,000 sq. foot hospital building that had largely sat idle for over 15 years.
He was asked by Governor John Bel Edwards to Co-Chair his Resilient La. Healthcare Task Force which included the CEO’s of Ochsner, BCBS La, Franciscan Health System and Executives from the leading healthcare providers in the state. Through this task force, he led the creation of a report that provider recommendations that were focused on how to create an innovative healthcare economy given the challenges faced during the pandemic.
Previous to his time as a public servant, Veneeth helped build the Venture Capital/Private Equity healthcare practice for Sage Growth Partners and worked in the Office of the Honorable Robert Mosbacher Jr, Former CEO of OPIC under President George W. Bush a US federal agency and was a former US Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines.
Veneeth was named a 2018 40 under 40 in Baton Rouge by the Baton Rouge Business Report, named a 2020 Leadership Louisiana Recipient by the Council for Better Louisiana, serves on Ochsner Health’s State Advisory Board, elected on the Board of the Pennington Biomedical Research Foundation in 2019 was named Chairman for Innovation Catalyst, an evergreen investment fund in 2019. In addition, he has been awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award for Outstanding Public Service by Johns Hopkins University.
He received his Master’s in Science in Finance from Johns Hopkins University and his Bachelors in Science in Economics from Purdue University. Veneeth grew up in Baton Rouge, attended Baton Rouge High and is a proud Louisianan.
Disclosure information not submitted.
Sunday, June 12, 2022
12:40pm – 1:30pm