Chief Administrator

Ms. Risena Xhaja has been the Chief Administrator of the Sequestered and Confiscated Assets Administration Agency since October 2024. She completed her university studies at the Faculty of Law, Tirana and graduated with a Master’s degree at the Postgraduate School for “European Studies”. In 2021, she received the title of Doctor, completing her doctoral studies at the Faculty of Philology, University of Tirana.

Ms. Xhaja is specialized in Civil, Administrative and Criminal Law, and has over 20 years of experience in Public Administration.

From March 2023 to August 2024, she served as the Secretary General at the Ministry of Finance. Previously, she held the position of Deputy Director General of the State Cadastre Agency, simultaneously Head of the Appeal and Co-Governance structure and Director seconded to two Local Directorates of this institution (2019-2023).
During her career, Ms. Xhaja has served as Secretary General at the Ministry of Culture (2019), where she had previously served as Director of the Legal and Agreements Directorate (2013-2016) and General Director of Economic and Support Services (2016-2019).

Ms. Xhaja has also served as a member of the Board of the Black Sea Bank, representative of the Albanian state, Chairwoman of the Board of Agrokredit, the Albanian Investment Corporation, the University of Arts, as well as a member of the boards of several institutions. At the same time, she has served as a lecturer at several public and private universities, in technical legislative subjects and the foundations of law.

With a prominent contribution to the drafting of legislation in the fields of: cultural heritage, tourism, sports, culture and property, Ms. Xhaja has published a series of studies in international scientific journals on cultural heritage and the financial impact on the country’s development.