Mr. Ilir Halilaj is a seasoned expert with more than 15 years’ experience providing technical expertise for a broad range of development issues, including infrastructure development, economic, agricultural and rural development. He has managed the financial aspects of a number of USAID-funded programs, and has provided technical leadership and managerial expertise. Most recently, Mr. Halilaj served as the Deputy Minister of Agriculture for the Government of Albania, where he developed new policies tackling the subsidy strategies in agriculture and supervised the implementation of various projects with international partners such as EBRD, World Bank, GIZ and FAO. Previously, he served as Director of Finance and Administration for the newly created Albanian American Development Foundation (a USAID funded initiative). He oversaw and developed the 5 year implementation strategy in key sectors such as entrepreneurship, education and tourism. In cooperation with the program managers, he was responsible for the overall budgeting and administration of the foundation's activities. 
He also has prior experience in corporate treasury and internal auditing for various corporations in New York, USA.