Louis DeAngelo Jr.

Opened my first restaurant at 19; now own seven DeAngelo’s Casual Italian Dining restaurants, along with a produce and specialty foods company that supplies 50 local restaurants; employs nearly 600 people in the Baton Rouge area.

My vision, mission and passion… the thing that drives my enthusiasm with entrepreneur rising is to increase the total tonnage of happiness, significance and wealth for those in my community. It’s also what drives my personal life. It’s not until people come to understand the value and importance of clarity and congruency of purpose in their business and personal life can they enjoy the full flavor of success. The old business model of “money and success at the expense of happiness and significance” is a dying religion, (I use the word religion loosely) although I suppose just as thought seeds are planted from one generation to the next, this old and out of date model for a “successful life” will linger on a few more generations.