Executive Officers:
Rezart Spahia - President
Altin Leka - Secretary and Treasurer
Arbi Rizo - Member
Olton Hysenbegasi - Member
Board Members:
Rezart Spahia
Rezart Spahia is a distinguished legal professional whose multidisciplinary career spans continents and reflects a deep commitment to civic engagement and cultural preservation. A New York-licensed attorney, Mr. Spahia has built a diverse career that includes roles as an archaeologist and corporate lawyer in Tirana, New York, and London, he has been recognized as a Hall Fame and Highly Regarded Leading Lawyer in Corporate, M&A, and Project Finance for his work with Frost & Fire Consulting, a premier legal and business advisory firm in Albania.
As Executive Director of the Ivanaj Foundations, Mr. Spahia champions education, cultural preservation, and civic engagement in Albania and across the Albanian diaspora. In addition to his contribution to the Ivanaj Foundations, to which Mr. Spahia has offered legal services pro bono since inception, his nonprofit leadership includes serving as a board member of RIT Kosovo (American University in Kosovo Foundation), Vice-Chairman of the National Albanian American Council, board member of the Albanian Heritage Conservation Foundation, board member of the Albania’s High Council of Sports and President of the Albanian Karate Federation.
Under Mr. Spahia’s leadership, the Ivanaj Foundations continue to expand their reach and impact, advancing their mission to promote Albania’s intellectual, legal, and scientific traditions while inspiring future generations through education and cultural pride.
Altin Leka
Altin Leka, is a professional in the scientific field who have served as researcher and manager in a number of multinational research and pharmaceutical corporations, in Europe and the US. He has a MS in Chemistry and comprehensive experience in research and development of analytical testing methods for characterization of newly developed pharmaceutical formulations. Previous work experiences at Battelle Research Institute in Geneva and GH Institute in New York encompasses extensive research on gas and liquid chromatography incorporated with mass spectroscopy for identification of chemical structures and their related substances. Currently, he holds the Quality Engineering Manager position at Perrigo Pharmaceuticals in New York (PNY), where he has worked in several capacities for over 15 years. Among other achievements at Perrigo, he has designed several cost reducing projects including the elimination of redundant testing of “in process” and finished drug products, and has collaborated in several programs with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) related to shelf-life and expiration dating of pharmaceutical products. Altin is an active member of the Community Service Committee at PNY, which promotes science to youth in low income areas of New York City as well as sponsoring internships for students in related fields. He joined the board as Vice President of the Martin and Ivanaj Foundation in New York in 2018.
Arbi Rizo
Arbi started his career at J.P. Morgan in the Investment Analytics and Consulting group, part of the investment bank. He worked with pension funds, endowments, and foundations, analyzing critical data about their portfolios. He left J.P. Morgan five and a half years later to continue his education in the UK and got a Master’s degree from Oxford University. During his studies, he was temporarily contracted by a venture capital firm, focusing on one of their biotech investments. After graduation Arbi moved back to NY and worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch as part of the team of Managed Account Advisors. He worked as an overlay trader for the first two years and, afterwards, joined the Investment strategy unit where he has been for the past four years. In his current role, Arbi helps build new overlay investment strategies and runs optimization techniques to implement portfolios. In 2021 he has joined the New York Foundation's Board as VP for Development.
Olton Hysenbegasi
Olton is a thoughtful, strategic leader with over 25 years of experience providing consultative and best practices guidance on frameworks and methodologies, strategy development, target operating model, advisory services, risk & governance, large scale change management, business process management, transformation & program management & execution excellence. A collaborative leader with extensive experience in managing large & complex transformational programs. Olton focuses on people development while delivering strategic & transformational initiatives across enterprise. Olton expertise includes an excellent track record leading & provisioning strategic programs in large, complex, information intensive, service-based organizations with budgets greater than $25 million/year.
Olton was raised and completed his university studies in Tirana, Albania. He received a Master of Science in Electronic Engineering (Telecommunication) from the Polytechnic University of Tirana, Albania in 1995 and Master of Business Administration from Richard Ivey School of Business from University of Western Ontario in 2013. Olton, also holds a PMP certification from Project Management Institute, and ITIL certification from APM Group Limited. Olton also holds many professional certifications/ accreditations such as: Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer from Ryerson University, RBC Negotiation and Conflict Management for Project and Program Mgmt., RBC Management Excellence Program, RBC Certified Agile Practitioner etc.
Olton started his professional career in Albania, working as a program manager with Open Society Foundation, Albanian Education Development Program (AEDP), in 1995. His career in Canada started at Merrill Lynch Canada in 1999; then he was employed as project manager with Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). In 2005, Olton joined Insurance Bureau of Canada and in 2007, Olton joined the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) as Sr. Project Manager. In 2008, Olton was promoted to Sr. Program Manager/IT Development Manager. In 2014 he was promoted to Program Director in Retail Applications for the Cross-Channel Sales Capability Optimization. In 2016, he was appointed Director in RBC, Strategy Transformation Services (office of CFO, CAO) and in 2017 he assumed the role of Director in Cyber Security, IT Risk & Security Services.
Olton has received numerous awards over the course of his professional career like: Open Society Foundation – AEDP, Award for Best Employee of the year, Merrill Lynch Canada Spotlight Award, CIBC Achievers Award, RBC Make a Difference Award, many team awards and twice the prestigious RBC Gold STAR Award.
Olton speaks Albanian, English, Italian and French. Olton served as a board member of Albanian Canadian Society, a non-profit organization providing a broad range of services to the community from Aug. 2017 to October 2018 and supported RBC Run For The Kids from 2016-2019.
For any matters related to Martin and Mirash Ivanaj Foundation in New York, please contact us at [email protected]