Deidre Deculus Robert was hired as president and CEO of Build Baton Rouge, giving the city's official redevelopment agency a permanent leader for the first time in more than three years.

Robert started working for the agency Monday. "It's been a busy day," she said. "It's indicative of the things that are going on."

Build Baton Rouge has been without a permanent leader since December 2021, when Chris Tyson stepped down after nearly 4 years.

Robert said she wasn't concerned Build Baton Rouge had been without a permanent leader for years.

"This organization has good bones and a great structure. They've done tremendous things," she said. "We just have to build on what we have done."

Some of Build Baton Rouge's achievements have been the redevelopment of the Baton Rouge Electric Co. Power Plant on Government Street into Electric Depot, a mixed-use development with housing, restaurants and an events space, plus Ardendale, a 200 acre tract northeast of Baton Rouge Community College near Florida Boulevard, that will include residences and retail space.

Plans are to move forward on some of the projects Build Baton Rouge had been working on before Tyson's departure, such as redeveloping a section of Plank Road with a grocery store, civic center, emergency housing and a YWCA child care center.

"We're going to focus on the entire parish," Robert said. "A win for one community is a win for all of East Baton Rouge Parish."

Robert was most recently director of state operations for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development program.

She has more than two decades of legal, administrative and executive management experience, in roles such as executive counsel for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, general counsel for the Southern University System and deputy director of the Litigation and Public Protection Division of the Louisiana Attorney General's Office.

She earned a bachelor's degree from LSU and a law degree from Southern University Law Center.