Mr. Veneeth Iyengar is currently the Executive Director for Broadband Development and Connectivity at ConnectLA under the direction of Gov. John Bel Edwards. Mr. Veneeth is responsible for coordinating efforts among federal, state and local leaders to eliminate the digital divide in Louisiana by 2029. Previously, he was an Assistant Chief Administrative Officer for East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome. During his time, the parish saw the best year in history for economic development projects. His role included outreach to executives from leading tech, pharmaceutical and healthcare companies throughout the country and involvement in economic development deals–including the recent Amazon acquisition of Cortana Mall and the redevelopment of a 76,000 square-foot hospital building.

Veneeth was asked by Gov. John Bel Edwards to co-chair his Resilient Louisiana Healthcare Task Force, which included the CEOs of Ochsner, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana and Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System. The task force recommended approaches to create an innovative healthcare economy given the challenges posed by 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 the Overseas Private Investment Corporation under President George W. Bush.

Veneeth was named a 2018 Forty under 40 in Baton Rouge by the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report, named a 2020 Leadership Louisiana Recipient by the Council for Better Louisiana, elected to the Board of the Pennington Biomedical Research Foundation in 2019 and appointed as a chairman for Innovation Catalyst, an evergreen investment fund in 2019.

He received his Master of Science in finance from Johns Hopkins University and his Bachelor of Science in economics from Purdue University. Veneeth grew up in Baton Rouge and attended Baton Rouge High School.